Government to proceed with education cuts ahead of election
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Demonstration against the budget cuts on higher education, last November. Photo: Diede van der Vleuten
Major cutbacks to education and research? With a general election fast approaching, a good proportion of the House of Representatives believe it’s time to call a halt. But a proposal to halt the cuts has been voted down.
‘We once again seem to be heading for a majority that favours scrapping the education cuts’, D66 leader Rob Jetten told Prime Minister Dick Schoof on Thursday, during day two of the general budget debate.
Jetten was referring to the upcoming election on Wednesday 29 October. A new House of Representatives could well set a different course on education and research. With this prospect ahead, he argued that the current caretaker government should hold off on far-reaching measures until the House gets to debate the education budget.
Jetten went on to emphasise the impact already being felt. He cited examples of cancer research being scaled down and education programmes beyond the major cities that are at risk of disappearing. In his view, the cuts in education and innovation are squeezing the economic capacity of businesses in the Netherlands.
Irreversible steps
Prime Minister Dick Schoof was reluctant to make concessions. Not least because the scheduling of debates in the House of Representatives is out of his hands, so he could not say when the education budget would be up for discussion. In the end, Jetten joined forces with Joost Eerdmans (JA21) to table a motion on education funding, calling on the government not to take ‘irreversible steps’. In other words, the ministry should avoid forging ahead when its budget may still come under review.
Student housing
Another motion tabled on Thursday night also touched on students and higher education. The motion proposed extending rent allowance to cover student housing, but failed to gain enough support. At present, students living in private sector accommodation are usually entitled to rent allowance.
Their motion met with support from a large number of parties: SP, GroenLinks-PvdA, PvdD, Denk, Volt, D66, NSC, ChristenUnie, JA21 and FvD. This widespread support did not add up to a majority, however, and the motion was narrowly defeated by coalition parties VVD and BBB with support from PVV, SGP and CDA.
Despite this defeat, the opposition parties are not giving up. GroenLinks-PvdA has already tabled an amendment to the education budget that calls for the cuts to be reversed. As things stand, the amendment doesn’t stand a chance but the House will not vote on it until after the election and by then it could be a different story.
