An interesting question reached the court recently. The plaintiffs were young people who had left the ultra-Orthodox path and sued the Israeli government, accusing it of failing to mandate the ultra-Orthodox education system to include general secular education, especially math and English, in its curricula. According to the youth, if they seek to gain higher education they must close learning gaps, and they accuse the state of not ensuring their education.

The suit brought against the state was dismissed. The state claimed that the suit should have been aimed at the parents, since they are the ones who denied their children education by sending them to ultra-Orthodox institutions rather than the public schools available to them. 

In general, we can say that the issue of secular education is a bone of contention between the ultra-Orthodox public and the rest of Israeli society. As a rule, ultra-Orthodox children study in public ultra-Orthodox schools, called “independent education.” These schools have a special status. Contrary to regular secular public schools, the independent institutions are very partially controlled — if at all — by the Education Ministry. The issue of state budgets for these ultra-Orthodox schools has become a highly political sensitive one over the years.

Over the years, government coalitions that did not include ultra-Orthodox parties systematically tried to condition the inclusion of general education for the allocation of government funds. However, when the ultra-Orthodox had control in the government, they succeeded in separating the demand for secular education from the budget.