Booked more hours than needed: Parents use free kindergarten - now the community is reacting

Created: 07/22/2022, 10:30 p.m

By: Bert Brosch

According to the municipality, parents took advantage of the free childcare.

Many book times for their children that are then not used at all.

© bb

Parents in Putzbrunn have booked more hours than needed for their children in kindergartens.

Now the community is responding.

Putzbrunn – Since 2019, attending kindergarten in Putzbrunn has been practically free of charge for up to six hours a day.

However, many parents abused this and booked many more lessons for their children than they were actually there.

Therefore, the municipality will reintroduce fees from September 1st.

The municipality operates the kindergartens in Rathausstrasse and Kiefernstrasse as public facilities, for which it charges usage fees.

The Salberghaus and St. Stephan day-care centers also charge these fees.

But the kindergarten care in Putzbrunn is effectively free of charge, since the Free State subsidizes 100 euros per child.

(Our district Munich newsletter will keep you regularly informed about all the important stories from your region. Register here.)

Community demands nothing for kindergarten: "We also suffer from staff shortages"

"At the time, I voted for the parents not to have to pay anything anymore, and I still think that's the right solution," said Mayor Edwin Klostermeier (SPD) now in the finance committee, defending the 2019 decision. "But for some time now we find that more and more parents book many more hours than the children are present.

Of course we have to have the staff available, but the children are picked up two or three hours earlier every day.” There are only a few municipalities where kindergarten attendance is free, and the parents would also submit confirmations from the employer.

"We cannot and do not want to control this, but things cannot go on as before, because we too are suffering from staff shortages."

Free kindergarten: "What costs nothing is also worth nothing."

The administration therefore proposes that parents pay ten euros a month for their little ones in kindergarten for five hours or more a day, with a booking of up to ten hours a day it would be 60 euros a month.

The community is also required to raise their fees reasonably cost-covering, which is not possible with the cemetery fees, nor with the day-care center contributions because it would be far too expensive for the citizens.

The community, Klostermeier calculated, supports every child in Putzbrunn with around 7,000 euros a year;

for everyone together, that's 1.3 million euros - "that's a lot of money".

Food is getting more expensive

In addition to the reintroduction of kindergarten fees, the finance committee also decided to increase the meal allowance from 85 to 90 euros per month.

There are also new daycare fees, starting at 270 euros a month for up to four hours a day and increasing from 405 to 432 euros a month for up to ten hours.

The costs are to be reviewed every two years.

Martin Adler (FWG) considers the new fees to be far too low and suggested EUR 20 per month for five hours and EUR 100 for ten hours.

"We are not the most expensive." Walter Hois (GPP) agreed with Adler: "It is sad that we have to take this step because of the parents' misconduct." Eduard Boger (CSU) could not resist pointing out that that his group had always been against free kindergarten attendance.

“Now, without local elections, everyone is coming to their senses.

What costs nothing is also worth nothing.

We have numerous support programs for those who cannot afford the fees.”

also read

After a swimming accident: a one-year-old toddler has to be resuscitated

Cows grazing in the development area - farm shop owner shows where his goods come from

Free kindergarten is history: Municipality introduces fees

According to Boger, the reintroduction of the fees is overdue.

His parliamentary colleague Maria Feiner wanted to know whether the new fees had now also been calculated.

"We once started to calculate everything, but we haven't gotten that far yet, because some data are missing so that we know exactly what costs what," admitted Managing Director Michael Hohberg.

With 5:2 votes, the finance committee decided to reintroduce kindergarten fees from September 1st, as proposed by the administration.

More news from Putzbrunn and the district of Munich can be found here.