State Education Law (Israel)

The State Education Law in Israel, 1953 was a law approved by the Knesset on 12 August 1953, intended to abolish the stream system in education and transition to state education. The law was enacted following a turbulent debate held in the Knesset plenum on February 13, leading to the Knesset instructing the government to prepare a bill for the abolition of the party-affiliated streams and the introduction of state education with two tracks - "one religious and the other secular."

Education system before the law's legislation
With the establishment of the State of Israel, the Compulsory Education Law, 1949 was enacted, requiring every child from the age of five to thirteen to study in a recognized educational institution. Until the State Education Law was legislated, every Israeli citizen (except for immigrants in immigrant camps) had to choose for their children the ideological stream in which they would be educated: the Labor stream, the General stream, the Mizrahi stream, or one of the small streams affiliated with Agudat Israel, or one of the streams that were not politically affiliated. This law essentially shaped the character of schools in Israel as national-state schools rather than political schools. Initially, the law was applied only to elementary schools and later expanded to include high schools.

Historical background
The law, which was only legislated in 1953, had been a long-standing desire. Already in 1948, as part of the discussions of the Education Planning Committee established by Mapai at the end of 1947, the proposal was raised to abolish the secular education streams and essentially merge the Labor stream with the General stream. The committee ultimately decided to ignore the question and leave the decision "to free clarification among various public entities, mainly teachers and educators." However, some committee members saw an "urgent need to clarify the issue of the streams" and sought a decision on this matter.

With the establishment of the State of Israel, the establishment initially avoided this issue, which is why a Minister of Education was not appointed until March 1949. The issue resurfaced as part of David Ben-Gurion's, the Prime Minister's, statehood policy. Ben-Gurion argued that the situation that existed in the Jewish Yishuv before the state was established could not continue afterward. Before the state was established, the parties were involved in all aspects of life - they established sports organizations, such as Hapoel of the Histadrut labor union, Betar of the Revisionists, and so on, settlements, such as the kibbutzim and moshavim that were and are ideologically affiliated with different movements, banks, such as Bank Hapoalim, and education systems that instilled their party's ideology in their students. The partisanship stemmed from the fact that the Jewish Yishuv had no direct connection to the British Mandate authorities, and there was no sovereign Jewish state, so the parties took on roles that are usually reserved for the establishment worldwide.

With the establishment of the State of Israel, there was a slow transition from partisanship to statehood, a transition led by Ben-Gurion. Ben-Gurion feared that party interest would override national interest and thus began the process of nationalizing institutions that took upon themselves the roles of the state. One of the peaks of this process was the legislation of the State Education Law.

In February 1951, a Knesset debate was held on the unified education of immigrant children. The debate shifted to the issue of the streams, and at its conclusion, the Knesset imposed on the government "to prepare within two months a bill that abolishes the party-affiliated streams in education and ensures the governance of unified state education in the country, with two tracks - one of which is religious." Already in the elections for the second Knesset (July 1951), the parties emphasized the issue of streams in their platforms. During the second Knesset, the debates continued on the topic until a decision was made in the Knesset plenum in August 1953.

A few months before the decision, a new obstacle emerged: kibbutz members sought to preserve the socialist characteristics within their kibbutzim, to continue flying the red flag, sing "Techzakna" and the Internationale, and celebrate May Day. Ben-Gurion strongly opposed this request. Initially, Mapai, his party, opposed him, but after Ben-Gurion declared that he did not intend to relent on this matter and threatened to resign - his stance was accepted.

The law was legislated on August 12, 1953, with the support of thirty-nine Knesset members against thirty-six opponents.

Direct reasons for the legislation of the law

 * Beyond the desire to weaken the power of the parties and reduce the politicization of public life, there were several direct reasons that motivated the government to legislate the law:
 * The different streams in education created duplicate and cumbersome systems that wasted a lot of money. Due to the intense competition between the streams, it often happened that in a small settlement where there was no need for more than one school, there were three schools or more. The transition to a new economic policy required a reduction in the state budget.
 * "Poaching of souls" began to develop - representatives of the streams pursued confused parents, some of whom, mainly new immigrants, were completely unfamiliar with the political reality and did not know which values were being instilled in their children. There was also intense hatred between the streams, and there was concern that this would negatively affect the state's future conduct.
 * Gradually, public protest against the stream system began to emerge, mainly from the General Zionists for whom the abolition of the streams was one of the coalition agreement clauses signed with them upon entering the government, and from other liberal and centrist parties.
 * The massive Aliya forced the different streams to rapidly recruit many teachers. The rapid recruitment of teachers was done without paying attention to the ideological commitment they had acquired to the stream in which they were teaching. Thus, the ideology of the stream and its uniqueness compared to other streams were effectively weakened.
 * Mapai, the ruling party and initiator of the law, changed its stance and supported the transition to state education.

The purpose of the law
The law aims to abolish the system of educational streams and to create a single education system that is ideologically and politically neutral, which will educate students according to "the values of Israeli culture and scientific achievements, and will instill Jewish culture in the students." It was also determined that schools will educate students to "love the homeland and loyalty to the state and the people of Israel, on training in agricultural work and craftsmanship, on pioneering training, and on the aspiration for a society built on the foundations of freedom, equality, tolerance, mutual assistance, and love of creatures."

Additionally, the law is intended to concentrate all authorities over the education of Israeli children in the hands of the Minister of Education and to reduce the autonomy of schools. The Minister of Education was given very broad powers, including the authority to intervene in the curriculum, to close schools, to determine special supplementary programs to the curriculum, and to declare a school experimental.