Munich (dpa/lby) – Around 13,000 people demonstrated on Wednesday for more state support for private schools. Young people, parents and teachers from all over Bavaria gathered for a “superlative lesson” on Königsplatz, which the police said was peaceful. The schools have been clearly disadvantaged for years, and there have also been extremely high energy costs. The Council of Free Schools in Munich, which includes the Catholic Schools, the Evangelical School Foundation, the State Working Group of Free Waldorf Schools and the Montessori Schools, announced that private sponsors could no longer cope.
A spokesman for the Association of Bavarian Private Schools (VBP) spoke of an annual funding gap of 64 million euros. Then there are the energy costs. According to the spokesman, the Catholic Schulwerk Augsburg estimated these costs for its more than 40 schools at around 8 million euros per year.
It was only at the end of November that the CSU and Free Voters parliamentary groups announced that they would increase the grants in the 2023 budget by 12.8 million euros. In total, the so-called school fee replacement would then amount to 141 million euros. The VBP spokesman called this sum a consolation. In addition, it is only an announcement so far and the increase of 12.8 million is initially only a one-off thing.
