Slob: potting administrations have to answer for themselves
Education Minister Arie Slob (ChristenUnie) refers to “horse resources” as setting a minimum budget for staff expenditure and other interventions in the lump sum, the bag of education money that school boards can spend as they see fit. The House of Representatives again debated the hot topic today.
Image: OCW, Valerie Kuypers
During the debate, Slob once again underlined the autonomy of school boards. According to him, this also includes a great deal of financial freedom. Whether education funding is sufficient and whether it is properly deployed by school boards is the subject of a study commissioned by Slob. Until the results are on the table - only next year, as it turned out today - little movement is to be expected in the lump sum discussion.
That the use of education money leaves much to be desired is a widely shared feeling in the House of Representatives. For example, the growing reserves of school boards are a thorn in the side of many politicians – from left to right. Slob meets the House in this area. Before the summer, the Inspectorate will publish a report on the introduction of signaling upper limits for excessive power. “I think that is very important, we have to do that. If you deviate from this as a school board, you have some explaining to do.”
Drastic
The lump sum debate splits The Hague politics. Coalition parties VVD, CDA and ChristenUnie want to keep current education funding. Opposition parties GroenLinks, SP and PvdA want more guidance by marking a percentage that boards should spend on staff, or by placing a divider between material and personnel expenditure.
The fourth coalition party, D66, is calling for a drastic system change: shifting the flow of money from the government to schools instead of government. Minister Slob will include the possible implications of the proposal in the investigation into the lump sum. A D66 motion that called for this received a majority at the end of last year thanks to support from the opposition. Slob advised against the motion.
Right of consent
The minister wants to “put schools in position” in a different way to influence the use of the money. He referred to the right of consent in outline of the budget for participation councils in primary and secondary education, which the cabinet wants to introduce. What these outlines encompass raises many questions. Slob cited the desired levels of reserves, the internal distribution of money within the board, the ratio between personnel and equipment as examples.
Read also the message that we published the debate on the main themes in advance.
