In the dispute over the phasing out of the federal “Language Kitas” program, the Union in the Bundestag sharply criticized the compromise offered by Family Minister Lisa Paus (Greens) to continue funding the program for six months.
The deputy faction leader Dorothee Bär (CSU) spoke of an “oath of disclosure”. “Federal funds are only being reallocated to finance the six months that the institutions have left until the end,” said Bär WELT. “Effectively, there is now even less for language development than what was already insufficient.”
Paus had previously announced that the program would be temporarily extended until the summer of 2023 in the amount of 109 million euros. For this purpose, funds from the Kita Quality Act, with which the federal government promotes measures to increase the quality of care in the daycare centers, would be reallocated. For the specialists in the language day-care centers, this is “the clear signal that their job is secure in the new year.”
The states now have another six months to transfer language education from temporary project funding to permanent funding. A number of federal states have now decided to do so, said Paus. “I appeal to the countries that have not yet decided to establish language support in the day-care centers on a permanent basis to also use this bridge.”
The family policy spokeswoman for the Union faction, Silvia Breher (CDU), said the “supposed success story” triggered horror in the Union. “Big-bodied declarations of will and announcements such as anchoring children’s rights in the Basic Law seem hypocritical insofar as the minister abandons children and young people in specific measures such as early childhood education,” said Breher WELT.
Taking the funds for a six-month continuation of the federal program from another package of measures for quality improvements in childcare is “downright absurd”. It is already clear that half a year will not be enough to transfer the structures of the federal program to the state responsibility, said Breher. “The children have to pay for this policy, they fall by the wayside.”
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