Suppose the Federal Republic of Germany were a tenement house built 72 years ago. Then the student loan would be the elevator that was retrofitted when there was a bit of money after the meager first years. What you afforded yourself because in a modern building all residents should come upstairs, including those who cannot do it on their own. This elevator is still running today, but it is getting on in years. It jerks, has become slow and keeps stopping. Its strength is no longer enough to carry everyone who would like to ride. The elevator is in desperate need of renovation.
The number of recipients of Bafög has fallen by a third in the past ten years alone
The new Federal Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger from the FDP has exactly that in mind. She wants to improve and expand the Bafög, the training subsidy for schoolchildren and students, as she announced shortly before Christmas – and quickly. “First important steps” should be implemented in a year. Its Time. The decline of student loans is obvious, the number of recipients has fallen by a third in the past ten years. 50 years ago almost every second student received student loans, today it is eleven percent. Reform is a political obligation. The question is whether the new education minister will succeed in what her predecessor promised but could not keep: a real trend reversal.
The signs are good. First of all, this is due to the fact that, after just a few weeks in office, Stark-Watzinger exudes more vigor than Anja Karliczek; after her appointment, she had announced that she wanted to familiarize herself thoroughly. Second, Stark-Watzinger’s plans show that, unlike Karliczek, she is really ready to adapt the student loan to the diverse student life in the 21st century. She not only wants to increase the funding itself, but also the tax exemptions and funding duration. Here, the boundaries have so far been drawn so tight that not only students over the age of 35 automatically fall out, but also almost the entire lower middle class. And thirdly, it is not just the minister who gives the impression of wanting to change something, but the whole government: education spending, the traffic light promises, should increase significantly.
Despite everything, the traffic light government should pay attention to costs and prioritize funding
If Stark-Watzinger has his way, then a more flexible and generous student loan is just the beginning. In a second step, she wants to reinvent funding. So far, it has been based on the income of the parents. If they earn little, there are student loans. If they earn too much – at least by the standards of the state – there is nothing. In the future, all students and trainees should receive a minimum amount of support, regardless of what their parents earn.
On the one hand, that makes sense. After all, this is about adults who the law treats like children, like appendages who sometimes have to argue in court for a share of the parents’ income that takes them away from the student loan. On the other hand, the guaranteed funding harbors a risk for everyone: If the state spends so much money on students who don’t need the money, there is a risk that too little will be left for those who really need it. To stay in the picture: The federal government has to renovate the student loan. But if you put too much weight on the elevator, it could get stuck again soon after the overhaul.