As K-12 students across Israel return to school, the Arab community is still short 3000 classrooms. An analysis of the 2016 State Budget by the Mossawa Center shows that the steps that the Ministry of Education has taken are not adequate to address this shortfall. Recent statistics show 61 percent of Arab students ages three, four and five do not have access to the classrooms that they are promised by law.

In honor of the new school year, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Education Minister Naftati Bennett delivered a speech to elementary school students in the Arab locality of Tamra, calling for Arab students to become “integrated and loyal citizens of Israel” and to strive for their ideal careers.

But while Arab students may share the Prime Minister’s goals, a segregated education system and discriminatory budget allocations place them at a significant disadvantage when compared with Jewish students. In 2014, Israel had one of the largest achievement gaps among OECD countries. At present, only 23 percent of Arab citizens have a high school diploma, compared with 47 percent of Jewish citizens.

While a government resolution (No. 1560) passed on June 16th established “education among minorities” as a priority, it failed to allocate funding to support this agenda.

At a roundtable in Tamra on August 11th, Mossawa Center Director Jafar Farah pointed out that existing plans to build dozens of schools and early childcare centers cannot be implemented because the Israel Land Administration opposes the allocation of land for these schools. These schools would be located in Tayibe, Majd Al-Krum, Rahat, Jisr Al-Zarqa and Haifa.

Discrimination against the Arab citizens within the education system is also detrimental to Israel’s GDP. Though they comprise 20 percent of the population in Israel, Arab citizens contribute only 8 percent to the country’s GDP.

While the Arab education system is drastically underfunded, there is a surplus of qualified Arab teachers in Israel. A Ministry of Education Initiative in 2014-15 increased the number of Arab teachers employed in Jewish schools from 420 to 588. Despite this, 40 percent of Arab teachers are still unemployed. If the classrooms missing from Arab schools were constructed, it would provide many of these qualified teachers with jobs.

Looking ahead, politicians and local leaders of the Arab community have declared their opposition to the 2017-18 Ministry of Education budget, on the grounds that it continues to ignore the needs of the Arab community.