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If the number of corona infections continues to rise, schools and universities will close again at some point.
So far, the responsible ministers have stated that educational institutions would definitely remain open.
But in Austria it has already been shown that these promises are not worth much: In the federal state of Salzburg, currently particularly hard hit by the fourth corona wave, people are preparing for emergency school care again.
There are hardly any reasons to assume that things will not turn out similarly in Germany.
Dramatically, as the situation is, you can "not rule anything out," says health minister Jens Spahn (CDU).
Again there is talk of lockdowns for vaccinated people and a home office obligation for employees.
It would be surprising if schools, daycare centers and universities were not also affected by tightened restrictions.
Elsewhere, children and young people have priority
Children, adolescents and young adults have already been among the main victims in the previous corona waves. Elsewhere in Europe, "stricter restrictions for adults have been enforced" "in order to be able to keep schools largely open," states the Advisory Council on the assessment of macroeconomic developments in an extensive analysis of the state of the education system, "for example in France, Spain, Ireland, Belgium and Switzerland «. Not so in Germany: The concerns of children and young people - and their parents - hardly played a role in the disputes over openings and closings.
The students are even further out of the public eye.
Universities and colleges have been largely suspended for teaching since March 2020.
Many students saw the inside of a lecture hall for the first time this fall.
In the past few weeks there has been a spirit of optimism that I have never experienced before at university.
It is doubtful whether the euphoria will outlast the corona disaster.
more on the subject
Cost of the Crisis: Generation LockdownA column by Henrik Müller
All of this is scandalous. Various studies show how big the learning gap is due to the school closings. Video lessons are an inadequate substitute, especially for younger students. Personality development is also delayed in older cohorts. There is also psychological stress, for students, but also for parents who are stuck in the home-schooling-home-office problem. In short, the human, social and economic costs of lockdowns are gigantic; the "generation lockdown" and society as a whole will be preoccupied with the long-term consequences for a long time to come.
It shows once again that there is something to the old insight of the economist Mancur Olson: Not all interests can be bundled into politically assertive interest groups. Ordinary people can hardly be organized, especially when they have their hands full with real life - because they have to work, raise children or look after relatives. And that is why they simply do not have the time to demonstrate to attract public attention or to set up any pressure groups.
Vaccination opponents, lateral thinkers and other weirdos, on the other hand, have managed to attract a lot of public attention.
In doing so, they have achieved that politicians have shown a remarkable amount of consideration for them: just no hard rules and regulations, just not frightening anyone, just not dividing society even further.
The wantonly unvaccinated people and their ideological conspiracy shock troops succeeded in hijacking German pandemic policy to a certain extent.
Before the pandemic, there were significantly more people in France and Italy who refused to be vaccinated on principle;
Even at the beginning of the vaccination campaign, things went slowly there.
But then these countries managed to overcome initial resistance.
We are not.
Why?
Collective irresponsibility
The difference lies in the state order.
In the German version of federalism, power is fragmented, responsibility is diffusely distributed, and in case of doubt it should be exercised collectively.
In the German "cooperative federalism", in which everyone should somehow be responsible for creating "equal living conditions" in the country, in the end nobody knows who is actually responsible.
This could be observed again and again in the recurring corona rounds of the prime ministers and the chancellor: At the end, ministers and prime ministers appeared in front of the cameras who demanded something - as if they were not responsible for themselves, but someone else.
Lame vaccination campaign?
Tab controls?
Little pressure on the unvaccinated?
Dismantling of the vaccination centers?
Where responsibilities between the federal, state and joint coordination groups are not clearly assigned, in the end nobody feels responsible - accordingly nobody is held accountable for mistakes.
Centralist states like France and Italy, on the other hand, got a grip on the pandemic fight after initial problems by centralizing the campaigns and enforcing them with power.
Really existing federalism and its contradictions
The fact that power and responsibility are fragmented under German-style federalism is particularly detrimental to those who are barely able to organize their interests. Powerful activists and lobbyists can raise their concerns anyway. Ordinary citizens, on the other hand, especially the young, must be able to rely on political decision-makers taking their concerns into account. That means: In case of doubt, politicians have to let the demands of the vocal printmakers roll off and decide in favor of the quieter sections of society. This requires personal sovereignty and a clear allocation of responsibility. Both are not exactly available in abundance.
The fact that federalism in Germany is in need of improvement can also be seen in education, an important policy area for which the federal states are primarily responsible, even if the federal government is involved here and there.
There is even some kind of competition among countries for the quality of schools and universities.
In principle, this is a good thing.
But this competition is not working well enough.
On the one hand, degrees should be equivalent in a federal state that is concerned with uniformity - on the other hand, there is a lack of comparability because there are no common quality standards, as the Council of Economic Experts recently criticized.
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Henrik Muller
Short-circuit policy: How permanent outrage destroys our democracy
Publisher: Piper
Number of pages: 256
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It goes without saying that equivalence cannot be achieved without comparability, that competition does not work without transparency. Unfortunately, we have long since got used to such contradictions in real federalism.
As a result, Germany is not producing a world-class education system, but one that is rather underfunded by international standards - which in turn primarily harms children, adolescents and young adults.
From elementary to college, spending on education is below that of other wealthy western countries.
According to OECD calculations, the Federal Republic of Germany spends 4.25 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on education.
According to this, the financial resources of elementary schools are particularly weak.
Universities and colleges are also not exactly well funded;
the budgets per student have even fallen by 0.8 percent annually over the past decade.
The Federal Republic needs an administrative and constitutional reform that draws conclusions from the corona crisis and gives the public sector a major overhaul - an »Agenda 2030« that detoxifies complex federalism.
The corona crisis has shown us the weaknesses of our state.
We cannot - and should - not be satisfied with that.
The most important dates of the upcoming week
Open assembly area
Potsdam -
Elon and the Germans
- conclusion of the repeated online discussion in the approval process for the Tesla factory in Grünheide.
Reporting season I
- Business figures from Zoom, Julius Baer, Gerry Weber.
Expand Tuesday area
Wiesbaden -
Interim balance
- The Federal Statistical Office presents detailed figures on the development of the gross domestic product in the third quarter.
Berlin -
Vision
- Finland's President Niinistö gives a keynote address at Berlin's Humboldt University (title: "The case for a stronger Europe in a harder world").
Reporting Season II
- Business Figures from Dell, HP
Expand Wednesday area
Munich -
mood: mixed
- publication of the ifo business climate index, the most important leading indicator for the German economy.
Reporting Season III
- Business Figures for Deere & Co.
Expand Thursday area
Frankfurt -
supervision, overview, caution
- the Deutsche Bundesbank presents its Financial Stability Report 2021.
Reporting season IV
- business figures from NordLB, Remy Cointreau.
Open area Friday
Brussels -
a bit of new beginnings
- meeting of EU ministers for internal market and industry.
