Opposition wants to stop new education cuts

Once again, the House of Representatives wants to reverse several education cuts introduced by the cabinet. This became clear during the debate on the Spring Memorandum, in which the elections cast their shadow ahead.

PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB initially wanted to make deeper cuts to education and research than they are now doing. They agreed, among other things, to introduce a slow-progress penalty for students taking longer to complete their studies and to reduce the number of international students.

But they do not have a majority in the Senate. Last December, they therefore reached a compromise on their education budget with the three Christian parties CDA, SGP and ChristenUnie, along with JA21. Some of the proposed cuts were scrapped altogether, while others were softened.

These cooperating opposition parties were unpleasantly surprised when the Spring Memorandum (in which the cabinet absorbs financial setbacks) once again included new cuts amounting to around 400 million euros. This mainly affected primary and secondary education, but vocational education and higher education also had to give up millions.

Fallen

In the meantime, the cabinet has fallen, and opposition parties saw their opportunity, as became clear on Wednesday during the debate on the Spring Memorandum. “Now that the racist and far-right PVV is out of the cabinet,” said Member of Parliament Doğukan Ergin (DENK), “we can say goodbye to their destructive and failing policies. We can wipe those painful education cuts off the table.”

Other parties took a calmer tone. André Flach (SGP) wanted to know from the cabinet why new education cuts had been announced after the earlier compromise with the opposition. “Surely the cabinet realises that there is no political majority for this?”

Amendments

Several amendments have been submitted to cancel the education cuts, either entirely or partially. “Elections are coming,” emphasised Jimmy Dijk of the Socialist Party. An amendment to reverse everything (including previously announced cuts by this cabinet) was proposed by D66, GroenLinks–PvdA, PvdD, Volt, SP and DENK.

Notably absent from this group are the Christian parties and JA21. They, together with D66, are backing a different amendment, which only concerns the new cuts announced in the Spring Memorandum. This therefore appears to be a feasible proposal.

Instead of cutting education funding, these opposition parties want to encourage people to take their state pension slightly later (worth 200 million euros). They also want to increase fines for collusion between companies (which would also yield 200 million euros).

NSC has already left the door ajar. Member of Parliament Folkert Idsinga did not want to make any commitments yet, but described it as a sympathetic amendment: “My colleague responsible for education will be very pleased with this.”

Heinen

Finance Minister Eelco Heinen (VVD), however, was not convinced. “I am the last one in The Hague still defending the Spring Memorandum. Everyone is keen to defend the sweet parts, but when it comes to the bitter, I am pretty much standing alone here.” He even briefly defended the scrapped slow-progress penalty, which he argued would have been perfectly feasible.

If the amendment from the self-proclaimed ‘monster coalition’ (D66, JA21 and the Christian parties) passes, it would save universities and colleges from cuts that could have reached 59 million euros by 2030. The institutions would also receive extra funds to compensate for inflation.