If the students have their way, it’s quite simple. “School transport should be free for everyone,” says Marlena Thiel, who is in eleventh grade at the Haarer Gymnasium. Thiel is a member of the state student council and as such has an eye on the interests of all students – especially those in the district of Munich, for whom subsidies for the way to school will be canceled in the future. “Of course I don’t think it’s a good thing that the funding is gone. Everyone in the jungle should have the opportunity to go to school for free,” said Thiel.
The “jungle” that the high school student calls is regulated in the “Ordinance on School Transport” of the Free State of Bavaria. According to this, there is a legal entitlement to reimbursement of the costs of school transport from the fifth grade onwards, from a distance of three kilometers to school and to the nearest school. Which this is also depends on the type of school chosen or a training and subject area. So if a student wants to attend a school with a very specific subject that is only offered in the district of Dachau, this facility is automatically considered the nearest school.
“This way does not correspond to the liberal idea,” says ÖDP district councilor Wrobel
The district of Munich has so far deviated from this practice and, as a voluntary service, has also assumed additional costs if students have chosen a school that is further away than the nearest. The district council partially reversed this practice on Monday on the recommendation of the district committee: In future, additional costs will only be reimbursed if the nearest school is no longer able to accommodate them. The motivation of the district politicians: The district of Munich has massively expanded the range of its own schools in recent years, so parents should be encouraged to send their children to schools in their immediate vicinity. “We don’t want to castigate anyone, we just want to enforce the law. After all, we’re investing three quarters of a billion euros in our schools,” says Stefan Schelle, Oberhaching’s mayor and chairman of the CSU parliamentary group in the district council.
However, this political measure is not undisputed, as was shown on Monday in the district council meeting in Ismaning. ÖDP district councilor Jolanta Wrobel warned the committee: “This path does not correspond to liberal ideas.” It was discussed whether this project could not simply be postponed for a year in order to wait for the utilization of the new Realschule Deisenhofen. The sluggish registrations for the school had led the district office to consider restricting the freedom to choose a school. However, a proposal by the Greens and SPD not to put the issue back on the agenda until 2023 was rejected by a majority.
The district saves only about 5000 euros
Around 270 schoolchildren in the district are currently benefiting from the district’s voluntary service; the costs for this amount to around 100,000 euros per year. And there will be exceptions in the future. Pupils who are already benefiting from the subsidy will continue to receive it – until the end of their schooling. Siblings who want to attend the same school will also be supported in the future. According to the district office, only new students “who attend a secondary school that is actually not the closest, mainly students from the fifth grade” will be affected by the new regulation.
FDP district councilor Katharina Diem said in the district council meeting that savings of around 5,000 euros are at stake here, “for the district council it’s petty cash”. How high the effect will actually be cannot be calculated seriously at the moment, according to the district office. It is not foreseeable “how many siblings will make use of the opportunity to receive school transport costs for attending a school other than the nearest school as part of the voluntary service”.
Fritz Haugg, member of the social association VdK Planegg-Gräfelfing and for the FDP in the Planegger municipal council, also criticizes the complicated system of reimbursement for school transport. He would wish for more justice, which would most likely result if all students were allowed to travel to school for free. “But that has to be paid for,” says Haugg. Above all, he sees the duty of the Free State: “Education is a matter for the federal states. The Free State should at least take on the majority.” It is quite possible that more parents who are in financial difficulties will come to the VdK. Should this happen, according to Haugg, city, municipal and district councils would have to put pressure on the state level.