Budget cuts to education could happen after all

The coalition’s original plan was to make substantial cuts to social security, while the Ministry of Education would receive an additional 1.5 billion euros. However, the NOS now reports that the roles may be reversed, as the government has scrapped the cuts to social security. 

That costs a lot of money, and the funds must come from somewhere. The Minister of Social Affairs is set to meet with trade unions to discuss social security reforms, but if that does not generate enough money, the bill may be passed on to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (Dutch acronym: OCW).

According to the NOS, the coalition parties agreed on this behind closed doors. A journalist from De Telegraaf confirmed this last night on Renze Klamer’s talk show on RTL. D66 parliamentary group leader Jan Paternotte, who was also on the show, did not deny the secret agreement, but he promised to do everything in his power to avoid cuts to education.

Extra funding due to inflation
The secret cut would be implemented through the so-called price adjustment, the additional funding that ministries receive annually to account for inflation. If the Dutch government does not provide this adjustment to a ministry, it is effectively reducing its budget.

Therefore, the additional investments – approximately 1 billion in 2026 and 1.2 billion the following year – in vocational education (MBO), higher professional education (HBO) and university education (WO) will not keep pace with inflation. The Dutch government announced yesterday that it intends to withhold the "wage and price adjustment" over the next two years. With inflation at 3 per cent, this will amount to a shortfall of around 67 million euros over the next two years.

The secret deal concerns the inflation adjustment for the entire Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) budget. According to the NOS, the cut would therefore amount to well over one billion euros from 2031 onwards.

Put on the spot
The deal increases the pressure on D66, as the big winner in the last elections likes to present itself as "the party of the education sector". However, trade unions and the opposition party PRO are also being put on the spot: if the talks on social security reforms yield nothing, they will be held responsible for the cutbacks to education.

However, the cut is far from certain. Several parties are negotiating the matter, and they will not decide on the budget adjustment until spring. Only then will it become clear what the total education budget will look like. No one knows what the political and economic situation will be by then.