Berlin The Alliance Agreement is like a cornucopia for education and research. The new federal minister for education and research Bettina Stark-Watzinger (FDP) must not only support 8000 particularly needy schools nationwide, but bring student loans back to their old size. A new agency that accelerates the transfer of new scientific knowledge to companies is particularly important for the economy.
The Ministry of Education and Research will need billions of euros for this. “It will be expensive,” lament the finance ministry official. For the plans to be realized, the negotiators calculated, the budget of the house would probably have to be increased by at least a quarter, that is, about five billion euros.
So it’s a good thing that Stark-Watzinger belongs to the party of future finance minister and FDP leader Christian Lindner. The traffic light contract clearly provides for a substantial investment in education – Lindner has repeatedly emphasized this. If the party’s leader should walk away from it in the struggle for stable finances, he will be “happily reminded”, declared by the designated Secretary of State for Education Jens Brandenburg (FDP) as a precaution.
The largest educational policy project is the new “Start Chance” program: 4,000 schools with particularly large numbers of socially disadvantaged pupils are to receive a budget that they can use to build new buildings, modernize teaching or finance with external actors. can do for cooperation. There are also permanent posts for social workers.
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This means that out of a total of 40,000 general education schools and vocational schools in Germany, one in ten will have adequate support. Another 4,000 schools “in disadvantaged areas and neighbourhoods” are also to be permanently equipped with social workers. A person from the coalition’s education working group said “all of this costs “several billions of euros per year in any case”.
The next big part is Digital Pact 2.0 for Schools. So far, a lump sum of 6.5 billion euros has been made available here from the first digital agreement. Traffic Light now wants to freeze aid until at least 2030 so that municipalities can not only purchase and refurbish IT equipment for schools, but also pay for maintenance and IT staff.
Digitalpakt 2.0 for permanent support
So far, school digitization has progressed very slowly. One reason for this is that municipalities shy away from spending with high follow-up costs. That’s also about several additional billions – but many of the funds that have yet to be called for are likely to be needed at the end of the legislative period and beyond.
On the other hand, more money for student loans should flow quickly: training subsidies should regain the importance it once held for a large section of the younger generation. Although there are now about three million students, even a sixth of them do not receive student loans.
“The choice of study should no longer be dependent on the parent’s home,” Stark-Watzinger promised at an FDP party convention. So that middle class children are also supported again, not only there is a sharp increase in the monthly maximum amount, but also there is an exemption for the income of their parents. Currently there is already a deduction if parents collectively earn more than 2000 euros net per month, complained Mathias Ambuhl, general secretary of the German student union.
In addition, the debt component – currently capped at €10,000, is halved – to be reduced in the medium term. Because the fear of getting into debt keeps many youths away from studies, hence Ambuhal. Overall, the student loan project will also cost billions, it is said.
A new agency must rapidly bring new knowledge to the economy
According to insiders, about two billion euros annually should ensure that the transfer of knowledge from research to companies is ultimately taking place. For many years, experts have criticized the fact that Germany invests too much government money in research – but this leads to relatively few new business models.
Ampelkoalition seeks to change this with two tools: a new “German Agency for Transfer and Innovation” (DATI) aimed primarily at universities of applied sciences, i.e. former universities of applied sciences, as well as small and medium-sized innovations. Is. Universities promote business in collaboration with start-ups and small people. According to negotiators, the budget for DATI – a project by liberals and Greens alike – should increase to one billion euros by the next election.
But that’s not all: “To foster a real innovation, we have to promote spin-offs,” the alliance agreement says. To create an infrastructure for this, both universities and large research institutions are to receive additional funding. For this also the negotiators estimate “another billion euros”.
In general, Traffic Light also promises universities that a “future contract for study and teaching”, formerly called the University Treaty, will be made dynamic from 2022 – in line with funding for research organizations, which Getting percentage. Year after year for a long time. The federal government currently pays only 1.9 billion euros per year. Universities will receive an additional 150 million euros per year in the future.
In addition, funding for the DAAD, the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, which organizes the international exchange of scientists, and the science academies are to be “dynamic”. This permanently increases the ministry’s annual expenditure, but negotiators say the items are at least “manageable” – they are each “only three-digit” millions.
more: These are the cabinet members of the new Traffic Light Coalition
