However, according to the Ministry of Education, the states have recently left 38 percent of the funds for expansion and language support unused. The Greens are therefore calling for a mandatory expansion plan for the states.

Each year, 80 million is reserved for the legally mandated kindergarten year. These funds were fully utilized by the states recently (2022/23 and 2023/24), as shown in the response to a parliamentary inquiry by the Greens from Education Minister Christoph Wiederkehr (NEOS). However, almost 44 percent of the funds for expansion and language support, where the states must co-finance about half of the federal earmarked grant, remained unused in 2022/23, and in the following year, it was still 38 percent. The proportion was particularly high in Styria (74 percent), Burgenland (62), Carinthia (59), and Tyrol (57).

Kindergarten: More Than the Minimum in Language Support

Carinthia, Salzburg, and Styria did not collect any earmarked grants for improving opening hours. In Lower Austria, Salzburg, and Vienna, this was the case for personnel cost subsidies to improve the care ratio. Elementary educational institutions have been struggling with staff shortages for years, and the Ministry of Education expects a tense situation in the coming years despite various new training paths.

The states have comparatively strongly accessed the funds for language support: At least 19 percent of the earmarked grants from the expansion fund must be used for language support, and in practice, it was recently (2023/24) an average of 36 percent, significantly more than the required minimum. However, according to the inquiry response, the employed staff does not always have comprehensive qualifications for German support. In Vienna, this was true for only 15 percent in 2024/25, with another 74 percent having at least a medium qualification. In Vorarlberg, only a quarter of the language support staff was fully qualified recently, in Lower Austria and Tyrol it was half. Only in Burgenland was exclusively fully qualified staff used for language support.

Greens: "Educational Policy Scandal"

For the Greens, it is an "educational policy scandal" that states do not collect the funds reserved for expansion and language support in elementary education. "This is irresponsible towards children and families," criticized family spokesperson Barbara Neßler in a statement to the APA. Thousands of children do not get a kindergarten place due to the inaction of the states, she criticized. Only for the kindergarten year for five-year-olds, where the states are obliged to implement it, is the money fully collected. "This shows: Without clear obligations, simply too little happens," she once again called for a mandatory expansion plan for the states and a right to a kindergarten place. The states must finally deliver on expansion and extension of opening hours.

(APA/Red)

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