From Minister Lorz’s point of view, private schools are an important supplement to public schools. Their financing is to be placed on a more stable footing in Hesse. The state parliament on Wednesday also dealt with other educational issues.
Wiesbaden (dpa/lhe) – The state of Hesse wants to give private schools more financial support and better adapt their funding to the actual student costs. The core of a planned amendment to the law are new calculation bases, explained Minister of Education Alexander Lorz (CDU) on Wednesday in the state parliament in Wiesbaden. According to this, the state’s grants are to increase from 380 million euros in the current budget year to around 440 million euros in 2024 and 470 million euros in 2025.
Private schools are an important supplement to public schools, said Lorz. “In their spectrum there are pedagogical-educational offers as well as offers with a denominational orientation or classic educational reform orientation.” Without the commitment of the private school authorities, such a multifaceted school system as in Hesse would be unthinkable.
Private schools are divided into supplementary schools and substitute schools – the latter have the same range of education as public schools, but are supported by a church, for example. These schools need approval before they can be funded by the state and benefit from free learning materials. Around 7 percent of all Hessian schoolchildren attend one of the 204 alternative schools in Hesse.
Supplementary schools offer lessons that do not exist in public schools – such as training in the field of cosmetics or health, as explained by the Ministry of Education. Complementary schools do not receive state subsidies.
Lorz also announced in the state parliament on Wednesday that he intends to extend the state program “Löwenstark – der Bildungskick” until at least the end of the 2023/24 school year. “Lion strong” is not just a catch-up program for learning and performance deficits, he explained. It is also intended to increase student motivation. The program enables additional support courses such as individual learning support as well as cultural education and exercise offers. “Löwenstark” was launched to help schoolchildren cope with the consequences of the Corona virus.
The opposition in the state parliament accused the black-green state government of not doing enough to counteract the shortage of teachers in schools in Hesse. Additional positions should not only appear on paper.
The education policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, Moritz Promny, called for the right to education to be anchored in the state constitution. It should no longer happen that this right is given a lower ranking than other rights, he said with regard to school closures in the corona pandemic. In a draft law, the FDP parliamentary group is also campaigning for “free and equal access to educational institutions and support for all people according to their individual abilities”.
“This individual promotion is not a reality everywhere in Hesse,” explained Promny. It is an indictment that often disadvantaged children are not optimally supported. Non-attached MP Rolf Kahnt pointed out that schooling is already compulsory and that everyone has access to education. There is no need to change the constitution.
