The Greens in the Landtag are demanding a free Germany ticket for all schoolchildren in the Free State. “It’s finally time for unbureaucratic freedom to go to school for all schoolchildren in Bavaria,” said parliamentary group leader Katharina Schulze on Monday in Munich. According to calculations by the parliamentary group, implementation would result in additional costs of around 131 million euros, but would result in a massive reduction in bureaucracy and more educational equity.
According to Schulze, there is already a so-called free travel to school law, but this does not deserve the name because it applies neither to all students nor to all schools. Since the reign of Edmund Stoiber (CSU), for example, all pupils from the eleventh grade onwards have been exempt and the regulation only applies to trips to the nearest school and only from a distance of two kilometers to school for elementary schools and three kilometers from the 5th grade – independently how dangerous the road is. Disadvantages would thus be reduced, especially in rural areas.
Normally, it is now time to make the issue a top priority and to bring calm to the much too complicated system, emphasized Green education expert and state vice president Thomas Gehring. But apparently Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) has no time for that.
However, not only the students in town and country would benefit from an implementation, the new regulation would also eliminate a lot of bureaucracy for the responsible authorities. “Especially in times of tight budgets, it would also be a clear relief for families in the country,” emphasized Schulze. This would also have the positive effect that when choosing a school, it would no longer be the lowest cost of transport that was decisive, but the goal of choosing the most suitable school for the children. “We think it’s time to solve it pragmatically.”
This includes free school transport regardless of age, place of residence and type of school. Pupils who walked to school or went to school by bike should also get Germany tickets. Gehring emphasized that the Free State currently pays around 60 percent of the costs incurred by school tickets, with the municipalities bearing the rest. In order to protect the cities and communities from additional costs, it is conceivable that the state would take over 65 percent.