The cities in North Rhine-Westphalia are pushing for a rapid reform of school financing. As it is currently regulated, it does not meet the current requirements, the city council complained on Tuesday in Düsseldorf. So far, the costs have been distributed as follows: the state pays for the teaching staff, while the municipalities take care of the buildings and equipment.
Although the state supports the school authorities with a flat-rate school and education allowance, the requirements for schools have changed, says Thomas Kufen, chairman of the NRW city association and mayor of Essen. There were always new tasks that could not be adequately covered.
“All changes in the school – digitization, inclusion, integration, all-day – do not take place at all, but are always handled through special funding, through special pots, through support programs. That will not be enough in the future,” says Kufen
New tasks for schools
In times of books and chalk, according to the complaint of the cities, the previous separation still made sense. In the course of digitization, however, new tasks have arisen. There was money from the federal and state governments via the digital school pact, which was invested in tablets or other hardware, for example.
In the long term, however, these devices would also have to be maintained. Kufen and his colleague Thomas Eiskirch, Mayor of Bochum, criticize that the municipalities cannot plan if they are dependent on money from special funds.
Challenges would also arise in the construction of schools or in the expansion of all-day care. In these areas, too, the municipalities are demanding a timetable for the reform steps.
Assessment as the first step
The black-green state government has stipulated in the coalition agreement that school financing will be newly regulated. But first a legal opinion is planned. All this is not happening fast enough for the municipalities.
School minister Dorothee Feller said on Tuesday on WDR that the government intends to look at school financing with an open mind. The tablet example shows what this is all about: Is it a learning tool that the school authority has to purchase or is it something the state has to offer? The next step is to commission an appraisal. The state government is in contact with the municipalities. The minister pointed out that it was a complex process.
The City Day of North Rhine-Westphalia, on the other hand, emphasizes that the initially planned legal report is unnecessary and suspects a delaying tactic behind the procedure.
“Reports are certainly important. But for us as a municipality, it is crucial that the result is available promptly at the end.” (Thomas Kufen)
The reform must proceed more quickly and directly via an expert opinion that does not show the legal situation, but the new financing methods.