Erfurt (dpa/th) - The free schools in Thuringia are complaining about growing financial difficulties. Although the cost shares are documented in the state law, the independent schools still had no binding commitment from the Free State about the financing at the beginning of the new school year, criticized the chairman of the board of the Diakonie Mitteldeutschland, Oberkirchenrat Christoph Stolte, on Thursday.
According to the state working group of independent school authorities in Thuringia, there have been significantly lower advance payments since January instead of the legally guaranteed financial aid. The Ministry of Education justified this by saying that the budget funds estimated this year were not sufficient to meet all legally binding claims.
According to the Diakonie and the state working group, the school authorities therefore have to make high financial advance payments in order to pay for teaching staff, equipment and operating costs. The increasing personnel and material costs would not be offset by the state. The Ministry of Education is putting the independent school authorities in a difficult financial situation through no fault of their own and is ignoring the will of the legislator, so the criticism. The ministry itself could not be reached for comment on Thursday.
According to the state working group, 29,170 girls and boys are currently attending the 161 free schools in the state. That's almost 12 percent of all students. The shortfall will soon add up to more than six million euros across all schools.
The CDU parliamentary group also reacted with criticism. She accused the Minister of Education Helmut Holter (left) of disrespecting free schools. Despite increasing statutory benefits and the planned adjustment of the remuneration of primary school teachers, the Ministry of Education deliberately reduced the funds by 14 million euros in the 2022 budget compared to the previous year.
There was also a lack of understanding from the Greens in the state parliament. The parliamentary group insists that the claim for financial aid for the free schools be fulfilled - and not just at the end of the year, it said. The left-wing parliamentary group pointed out that red-red-green had significantly improved the financial resources of free schools. If they had received around 193 million euros for their equipment in 2020, 234 million euros are earmarked for this in the draft budget.
