B'Yachad, we'll fix early childhood education
Early childhood is a critical period. From pregnancy through age of three, accelerated brain development occurs during which the foundations are built for language, emotional connection, learning and social development.
The world has long understood that investing in early childhood education is one of the most effective investments to reduce gaps and prevent difficulties later on.
In contrast, in Israel, the state is shirking its responsibility: investing too little and providing subsidies to only a small portion of the population. And the result is a collapsing system with a severe shortage of caregivers and the wholesale closure of daycare centers.
We will take responsibility from day one and build quality, subsidized frameworks with priority for the working and enlisting public, improve caregivers’ salaries and their working conditions, fill vacant positions, and immediately increase funding for supervision and training.
It’s time for the state to recognize that children are not born at the age of three.
What's the problem?
By the age of three, the brain reaches 80% of its adult size. What is shaped in these years impacts the ability to learn, form relationships, regulate emotions, and develop in the future.
When the state does not invest in early childhood education, it pays for it later with interest in having more educational gaps, emotional and health difficulties, special education placements, and inequality. Yet the average public expenditure on a preschool child in OECD countries was 12.5 times higher than in Israel in 2022. The result is that early childhood education is neglected, daycare centers have difficulty recruiting and retaining caregivers, guidance and supervision are lacking, and parents, especially mothers, are forced to choose between paying for a framework and giving up working.
What's the solution?
We will stop the collapse of daycare centers: we will improve the salaries and conditions of caregivers, staff vacant positions, and then open up new positions for hiring.
Families of reservists will benefit from free, supervised daycare, and the entire serving public will receive a significant subsidy. (For details see the B’Yachad Party’s Servicemembers Bill). Working will be a basic condition for receiving subsidies and a criterion for priority admission to daycare centers – this in order to put working families first.
We will build a multi-year plan to create a quality, supervised, and subsidized early childhood education system accessible to every family. We will establish public frameworks and add private daycare centers that meet the necessary standards to the subsidized track.
We will immediately increase funding for supervision and enforcement. In addition, the hours of training for caregivers will be quadrupled – so there is real guidance and working in childcare is made into an educational profession in every sense.
How will we know we've succeeded
The goal - a good framework for every toddler
Parents will have access to a broad public daycare system from their child's birth, alongside high-quality private settings that will join the subsidized track and meet the same standards.
The enlisting public comes first
Families of reservists will be able to enroll their children in supervised preschools for free, and all families from the serving public will receive a voucher to be used to pay for such supervised frameworks.
Professional care for our kids
We will stop starting the school year with headlines about a shortage of thousands of daycare staff and the closure of daycare centers. We will transform early childhood education from a sidelined profession into a valued one where you can build a future.
100% supervision of all daycare centers
The state will know where our children are, who is caring for them, what training the staff has received, and whether safety and quality regulations are being followed.
Together, we'll fix early childhood education in Israel
01
Stopping the collapse of daycare centers
We will raise the salaries of daycare staff, improve their employment conditions, fill vacant positions, and create and fill new positions. Without professional, stable, and valued staff, there is no such thing as a quality daycare center – and parents then have no real opportunity to go to work with peace of mind.
02
The goal – quality, subsidized daycare for all
We will formulate a multi-year strategic plan to establish a system of high-quality, supervised daycare frameworks from birth. A good and safe framework will be available to every family that chooses it. A subsidy will be allocated by the state to all parents who meet the eligibility conditions.
03
Benefits to families of those who serve
Families of reservists will receive free daycare from day one, and all families from the serving public will receive a voucher to use in supervised frameworks and preferential admission to subsidized daycare. Those who bear the burden of defending Israel should receive real support from the state at home as well.
04
Encouraging parents of toddlers to work
We will base eligibility for subsidies and priority in admission to daycare frameworks on parents working and how much they earn (or one parent in single-parent families). In this way, we will direct public resources to working families, encourage employment, and enable mothers and fathers to work and advance in their careers.
05
Real and effective supervision
We will immediately increase funding for supervision so that the state can effectively supervise all frameworks for toddlers from birth to age three. Every parent has the right to know that the place to which they send their child is safe, reputable, and under state supervision.
06
Training and support for caregivers
We will provide each daycare worker with twenty hours of monthly training – four times the current level. This training will provide them with real guidance and tools in the field of child development and for identifying delays and distress at an early stage – and will transform our daycare system into a true educational framework.
Questions and Answers
These years are the foundation for language development, emotional connection, learning, and social skills. This is not a waiting period until kindergarten, but the most significant developmental window in a child’s life. A country that wants to close social gaps must start before they arise.
The earlier the intervention, the more difficulties that can be prevented rather than trying to fix them after they have set in. Investing in nutrition, safety, nurturing emotional connection, language development and quality instruction improves a child’s starting point and prevents spending more on education, healthcare and welfare later on.
Alongside its educational effects, subsidizing early childhood daycare is a tool that allows parents of toddlers to continue working, earn a living, and develop in their careers. Therefore, assistance will be provided to families in which both parents (or one parent in the case of single-parent families) have exhausted their earning capacity.
The goal is to have a quality, subsidized framework available to any family that wishes to use one. The system will include the establishment of new public frameworks and the addition of quality private frameworks to the subsidized track, subject to them meeting mandatory standards. As stated, subsidies will be conditional on the parents’ earning capacity being maximized.
Caring for toddlers is a complex educational profession. Caregivers need to be given significant tools to promote language development, foster emotional connection, work with parents, identify challenges, and deal with distress. 20 hours per month is four times the current standard – and this is a necessary leap forward.
