Alternativet and Danmarksdemokraterne are urging the Danish government to release emergency funding for village schools, as municipalities across the country draw up savings plans for next year’s budgets.
DR reported on September 4 that both parties want the government to act now, while municipal budget negotiations for next year are under way. As DR describes it, municipalities are presenting savings catalogs worth 50, 70 and 100 million kroner, and in some cases more.
Several small village schools on Zealand and Lolland are named as being at risk, including in the municipalities of Faxe, Næstved and Lolland. Pupil numbers at the schools are low, and the potential savings are large.
Susie Jessen, political spokesperson for Danmarksdemokraterne, told DR that the government must live up to its own governing platform on rural districts. Her party wants 500 million kroner set aside in the finance bill, combined with its rural policy proposal.
Elise Sydendal, rural districts spokesperson for Alternativet, is calling for a financial emergency package earmarked for keeping schools threatened with closure open. According to Sydendal, Denmark is too wealthy and too small to accept such large regional differences.
One school back in the savings catalog
Among the schools at risk is Vesterlandsskolen’s Hyllinge branch, just outside Næstved. The school has appeared in the municipality’s savings catalog before and was spared, but it is now included again in the catalog sent out for public consultation.
Karina Ladanberg Wolan is chair of the school board at Vesterlandsskolen and mother to a boy at the Hyllinge branch. She told DR that it feels insecure to choose a school without knowing whether a child can stay there. She acknowledged that schools with few pupils can be expensive to run.
Wolan also said the village schools offer something particular for some pupils. In her account, children who are struggling or heading toward school refusal can benefit from the setting.
Minister has no new money for now
Pia Olsen Dyhr of SF, minister for economic affairs and the interior, said she has no additional funds available at present for municipalities under pressure on schools. She pointed to the one billion kroner distributed earlier in the week, which she described as historically large and targeted at rural municipalities.
Dyhr said the government will come forward with measures on village schools, but cannot solve everything in one move, noting it has four years. According to the minister, the aim is broader than schools and includes local services and leisure activities that keep life going in Denmark’s villages.
