Ekkehard roepert the government relieves parents and takes over 100 euros of the kindergarten fees. Parents in baiersdorf protest because only part of the money reaches families. "It gives the impression that the burger is to be pinched off from the 100 euros right away", argues jurgen lederer, the parents’ council of kindergarten st. Josef.
A protest alliance of five kindergartens has joined forces: the parents’ council of the kindergarten blumenstrabe, the parents’ initiative kindergarten "kinderreich" and the three parents’ committees of the kindergarten seligmannstrabe, st. Josef and st. Marien.
They want the city council to reverse its decision in june to increase fees by up to 46 percent. At least the protesting parents have already managed to get the baiersdorf city council to take up the issue again this week.
Been too social?
However, at least chamberman hans hofmann considers the demands of the parents to be questionable. He points to the recommendation of the state government that the fees should be borne in equal parts by the city, the parents and the state. The city of baiersdorf may have made the mistake of being "too social" in recent years to have acted, says the chamberlain. In other words, only the rising wage costs of the educators were passed on to the fees; the burdens were never distributed equally. The result: the city, as the provider of three city kindergartens, ended up with 44 percent of the costs, while the parents took over only 24 percent. "The increase is now to compensate for this", says hofmann.
Baiersdorf parents pin their hopes for lower fees on comparisons with other municipalities. The city of forchheim (see adjacent info box) is passing on the planned relief from the bavarian state government "completely to the families", says, for example, in the protest letter that the parents sent to the mayor, the councils and the media.
While other municipalities allegedly had no or only small fee increases, the city of baiersdorf was raising kindergarten fees "by up to 46 percent", the parents regret. On average, it amounts to a 42 percent increase "and the planned relief fizzles out". This is contradicted by kammerer hofmann. It had itself in comparable municipalities such as adelsdorf or hirschaid umhort. "There are many institutions involved that raise. The accusations are basically untenable."
Over 400 signatures
The dissatisfied parents have a different opinion: if 70 euros out of 100 go straight into the municipality’s coffers, then such support should not even be roughly announced. In a signature campaign by the parents’ representatives, "in just a few hours, more than 400 signatures were collected from citizens of the city of baiersdorf, who also condemn this action".
Parents’ spokesman jurgen lederer: "of course there are increases everywhere on a rotational basis. But if, as in my case, from september the fees were increased by 65 euros, then that is extremely high."
Lederer is not convinced by the chamberlain’s reference to the third lottery ticket: "that’s just a recommendation, it’s never been implemented so far." He is "confident, that the city council will respond to the concerns of the parents with understanding. "There will be an increase, but it will be smaller, we are concerned that it is extremely high."