Schools are charged for dampening the OCW budget
The cabinet is withdrawing 145 million euros from education and research to finance a setback in the budget and the patching up of the ICT systems at the DUO executive service. Educational institutions are being cut back on compensation for the rising prices of equipment.
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That shows again from a letter who sent education ministers Arie Slob and Ingrid van Engelshoven to the Lower House yesterday, in response to the recently presented Spring note. This afternoon, from two o'clock, the House will debate this Spring Memorandum.
As a result of this cutback, secondary education misses out on about 22 million euros a year, mbo between 29 and 34 million, hbo 15 to 16 million and wo 25 to 27 million per year. In addition, about 28 million euros is withheld from research and science policy in price compensation. The situation is slightly different for primary education: the price adjustment for equipment cannot legally be reduced there. But because certain subsidies are not indexed, the sector still loses 19 million euros annually.
Discount per sector:
While Budget Day it turned out that in addition to the already known 'efficiency discount' of 183 million, the Ministry of Education had run into a new setback because pupil and student numbers turned out higher than estimated. There was no cover at the time: Slob still had to get the required 114 million (rising to 160 million in 2023) from somewhere. In addition, the ICT systems at the DUO implementation service are in urgent need of maintenance and replacement, an operation that is already budgeted at 27 million euros this year (rising to 49 million in 2030).
In the Spring Memorandum, the cabinet presented the 'solution': a cut of € 145 million in price adjustment for educational and research institutions. Slob and Van Engelshoven emphasize in their letter that most of the price compensation is paid for equipment, and even more for rising wages. 'So we fully compensate institutions for rising wages, but not fully for rising prices of equipment.' To which they immediately admit: thanks to the lump sum funding, school boards are responsible for their own expenses. They cannot rule out the possibility that the cutbacks to the left or the right will nevertheless be at the expense of the teaching staff.
