VVD minister Wiersma: 'The norm is the norm'
VVD minister Dennis Wiersma believes that education administrators should also remain within the public remuneration ceiling with extra earnings as supervisors. “The norm is the norm, as far as I'm concerned. Without goat paths.”
Picture: Livestream Tweede Kamer
Until late in the evening, the House of Representatives spoke with Wiersma about a subject that had been in the political waiting room for years: expanding the possibilities to act at educational institutions where things go wrong. Opposition parties GroenLinks and SP seized the opportunity to submit two amendments to further regulate the remuneration of executives and supervisors. It Education magazine illustrated recently how, thanks to part-time jobs as a supervisor at another educational institution, hospital or housing corporation - permitted by law - board members exceed the public remuneration standard of the Top Income Standards Act (wnt). Previous cabinets deliberately kept these ancillary positions outside the norm, partly because it would deter potential supervisors.
GroenLinks and SP believe that every euro above the Wnt standard should be surrendered. “I fully agree with that,” said the minister
GroenLinks and SP believe that every euro above the Wnt standard should be surrendered. They find the minister on their side. "I totally agree with that. Those standards are there for a reason," says Wiersma. He showed understanding that the opposition parties wanted to work on this right away, but nevertheless referred the proposal to another counter, partly because it affects the entire semi-public sector. In September a debate on the Top Income Act is planned with his fellow Minister of the Interior: "I will inform the Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations that as far as I am concerned, the norm is the norm, without any goat paths."
In addition, both parties want to give participation councils of educational institutions a right of consent on the remuneration of supervisors - who themselves own compensation may determine. "What bothers me is that supervisors can determine their own remuneration and can also increase it independently. I think that is a very strange figure, especially in the public sector," said GroenLinks MP Lisa Westerveld. The minister indicated that he wanted to include the subject in the elaboration of the coalition agreement on strengthening employee participation.
double
The House of Representatives reacted strongly divided last night to the bill 'expansion of administrative instruments'. After notorious incidents at, among others, the Cornelius Haga Lyceum, Avicenna and VMBO Maastricht, the need for faster intervention has grown in political The Hague in recent years. Abuses, poor quality of education or social insecurity can continue for far too long with the current regulations, says Wiersma. Students are the first to be affected.
Abuses, poor quality of education or social insecurity can persist for far too long with the current regulations, says Wiersma
But how fast and how hard should a minister be able to act against a school board? A bill was prepared under the previous cabinet, which received a critical assessment from the Council of State. Minister Wiersma recently sent his plans to the House of Representatives with some tightening. For example, the minister wants to be able to issue urgent instructions in the event of a 'reasonable' rather than 'serious' suspicion of mismanagement.
In addition to Wiersma's own VVD, D66, PVV, SP and GroenLinks also support the bill, although some groups have comments or questions. At denominational parties, the fear of far-reaching incident policy can be heard from special education; they expressed serious reservations (ChristenUnie) or reacted outright negatively (CDA, SGP). The expansion goes too far for Denk too, while the PvdA would have liked a written round of consultations first. There will be one now anyway, because some of the questions will soon be answered on paper before the debate is continued later - if all goes well before the summer recess.
Forced
The most recent education affair was also reviewed last night: the schools for personal education (SvPO), where founder and director Misha van Denderen was eventually forced by an instruction to make way for a five-member interim board.
It has been clear for years that education is very weak and that taxpayers' money is being used illegally, says VVD MP Mariëlle Paul. “It was only last week that the driver resigned under great pressure. With this law, action could have been taken earlier and the students would have had better education much sooner.”
"Recently we saw how long it took before the government could really intervene in a board where everyone who was involved in it for years had come to the conclusion: it is really wrong there," said SP MP Kwint, who spoke. of “just about the biggest fundraiser of public money from education” in years. “To what extent does the minister believe that appointing a new board will solve all problems?
The board is highly motivated to restore this quality, so that education can be restored and students receive what they are entitled to. But it's a big job and there's still a lot to do
According to VVD minister Wiersma, there is still a lot of work to be done at SvPO. “We have now consciously opted for a five-member board. That's pretty big, you might say. The new board members have a lot of experience. I do recognize that a lot of work really needs to be done. The board is highly motivated to restore this quality, so that education can be restored and students receive what they are entitled to. But it is a big job and there is still a lot to do. The board makes a recovery plan. Administratively, we still have complicated things to do with declarations. So we are not finished with this, but the most important thing is that those students get a good education again.”
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