Dekker is not allowed to refuse a subsidy for an Islamic school in advance
State Secretary Dekker of Education should not have refused in advance the subsidy for the Foundation for Islamic Education in Amsterdam (Sio). That was decided by the Amsterdam administrative judge on Friday last week.
State Secretary Dekker of Education should not have refused in advance the subsidy for the Foundation for Islamic Education in Amsterdam (Sio). Which decided the Amsterdam administrative judge last Friday.
Sio wants to start a secondary school for mavo, havo and vwo in Amsterdam. State Secretary Dekker refuses however, to give the school money, because a former board member of Sio previously openly expressed support on Facebook for the terrorist group IS and the board did not immediately distance itself from it. Moreover, the school is a successor to a school that previously had problems with the quality of education and therefore had to close permanently. In his decision, Dekker wrote: "There is a risk that the board will also allow the body of thought in the education of students."
The municipality of Amsterdam did not cooperate either and refused to arrange a school building for the school. After a long procedure, the Council of State decided that the municipality must find housing before August 1, 2017.
Decision
Last week, the administrative judge considered whether State Secretary Dekker could refuse funding in advance. Sio had not yet submitted an application and according to the judge a school does that only when housing has been found. At that point, the school sends a notification with a prognosis about the number of students. Without this notification, there is no reason to take a decision, according to the judge. Dekker should not have done that either.
The school board will now submit an application to the Ministry of Education to start on 1 August 2017. Dekker has promised to take a decision quickly and has informed DUO.
