The Case of Israel: Budgets, Matriculation Exams, and the Ethnic Divide

Abstract

In the domain of social justice, ever-diversifying, modern societies work to expand and improve their systems to accommodate multifarious citizen bases; failure to do so results in discrimination and marginalization that affects the success of minority populations. With specific regard to education systems in Israel, standardized testing presents a cavernous achievement gap between the dominant Jewish and periphery Arab student populaces. This paper assesses one of the factors that contributes to this discrepancy in test scores: budget allocation. Specifically, it will evaluate the relationship between test scores and budget in Israel proper, while controlling for Arab and Jewish school systems. Ultimately, data from the years 2008 to 2018 demonstrate a positive relationship between budgets and test scores, with clear variation between demographic categories and internal versus external budget measurements. As a result of this discovery, this thesis research confirms and challenges previous findings within educational literature, identifies significant implications as byproducts of this variable relationship, and proposes future policy adjustments and research expansion.