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A day-care child leafs through a book: The previous language support with federal funds should be stopped (symbol image)
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Daniel Reinhardt / picture alliance / dpa
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania does not want to accept the end of the multi-billion dollar federal funding program for so-called language day-care centers, in which children are given special language support.
The Schwerin cabinet decided on Tuesday to campaign in the Federal Council for the preservation of the program entitled "Language day-care centers: because language is the key to the world".
According to the will of the traffic light coalition in Berlin, the separate funding should expire at the end of 2022.
Language support is then to be integrated into the “Kita Quality Act”, the successor to the so-called Good Day Care Act, without additional funds being made available.
“That's a cut at the expense of supporting the children.
The federal government is stealing from its responsibility," criticized Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's Minister of Education, Simone Oldenburg (left).
The need for support throughout Germany is very high.
According to the minister, 171 specialists for language support in 140 language day-care centers in her federal state alone are financed with the help of federal funds.
"We demand that the federal government continue the language daycare program beyond 2022," said Oldenburg.
Criticism of funding: "Incomprehensible and negligent"
According to the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs, federal funds of 248 million euros are still available for the current year for the targeted support of children with special language needs.
In principle, the financing of schools and day-care centers is a matter for the federal states.
However, the federal government had decided to provide additional funds with the so-called Good Daycare Act.
In the successor law, four billion euros are planned for this over the next two years.
The Federal Ministry had pointed out that the federal states could also continue language support.
In its coalition agreement, the traffic light government had actually agreed to continue funding language day-care centers.
The announcement to stop the program was met with massive criticism in the countries.
In a joint statement, the youth and family ministries appealed to the federal government to withdraw the decision against the background of the corona pandemic and the many refugees from Ukraine.
"In the current situation, language support for children must also be a central concern of federal politics," says the statement that Berlin published as the presiding state of the Youth and Family Ministers' Conference (JFMK).
"Putting cuts here is also a devaluation of the work done so far for the many employees in the day-care centers," said the ministers.
The move also exacerbates the already tense staffing situation in day-care centers, saying it is “incomprehensible and negligent”.
fok/dpa