Grüne on education

The Greens want to strengthen daycare centers, schools and universities. They are meant to give all children and young people a good start in life.

The Greens want to improve daycare, schools and universities. Everyone should get a good chance in life. Education is very important for that.

The platform counts good education among the key factors that decide people's chances in life. Among the problems it names is the shortage of skilled staff in daycare centers. It also sees a good school as a shared place that supports democratic cohesion.

The Greens want government and business together to spend clearly more than 3.5 percent of economic output on research and development. Support would go to basic research, applied research and the transfer into market-ready products. The platform sees innovation as decisive for the economy and for climate protection.

The Greens want more money for research. The state and companies together should spend more than today. Researchers should be able to test new technology more easily. Ideas should turn into products faster.

A research data law would make data more available and promote open access to knowledge. The assessment base of the research tax allowance for companies would grow, and science would receive adequate basic funding. The DATI agency would support regional innovation networks; the challenge-based approach of the SPRIND agency would be expanded and complemented at the European level on the ARPA model. A Reallabor (real-world lab) law would create spaces for testing new technologies. Bureaucracy in research would shrink, while risk research and technology assessment would be strengthened.

The Greens want to start a "Zukunftsinvestitionsprogramm Bildung" (future investment program for education) together with states and municipalities. It is meant to modernize school buildings, add staff and reach more schools beyond the existing Startchancen program.

The Greens want to invest a lot of money in schools. School buildings should be modern and without barriers. There should be more helpers at schools, such as social workers. Children should learn to read, write and do math well. They should also learn to use computers.

Plans include more positions for school social work, school psychology and inclusion, plus a focus on basic skills. Civic, democracy and environmental education, digital skills, media literacy and responsible use of AI would be promoted. Digitalization and all-day schooling are treated as permanent tasks with further investment; mental health coaches would be expanded and inclusion under the UN disability rights convention put into practice at all schools. States would get help recruiting teachers, for example through dual study programs and career changers, and teachers' working hours would be recorded.

The Greens want to scrap the Kooperationsverbot, the constitutional rule that largely keeps the federal government from co-funding schools on a lasting basis. Education money should also be distributed more according to actual need.

Today the federal government can give schools money only within limits. This rule is called the cooperation ban. The Greens want to end it. Education money should go where it is needed most.

The federal government, states and municipalities are to work together more closely on education policy. Instead of relying only on the Königsteiner Schlüssel, a formula based on population and fiscal strength, funds would follow need more closely. Shared goals would be agreed with the states and new joint tasks in the constitution discussed. Regional education networks would link schools, school supervisors, school authorities and youth services.

The Greens want continuous language support from daycare through vocational training and want integration to be a standard task of the education system. All children should be able to attend regular schools regardless of their language skills.

All children should learn German well. Support should start in daycare and continue in school. Every child should be able to go to a regular school. This also applies to children who speak little German. Fewer young people should leave school without a diploma.

By the end of elementary school, all children should read, write and do math with confidence. The multilingualism of many students is to be respected and strengthened. The platform regards Germany as a country of immigration and calls for lasting rather than makeshift solutions for refugees and other newcomers in education. Training in discrimination-sensitive teaching is planned for family daycare and teacher education. A national strategy is meant to prevent dropouts; according to the platform, more than 50,000 students leave school each year without a diploma.

The Greens want to raise the minimum pay for apprentices significantly and fund apprentice service organizations modeled on student services. A solidarity-based training levy is meant to encourage small and mid-sized firms to train.

Apprentices should get clearly more pay. There should be apprentice services that offer dorms and advice. Companies would pay into a shared fund. Companies that train apprentices get money from it. Young people should get better help choosing a job.

For apprentices, driver's licenses would be subsidized, an apprentice Deutschlandticket made possible and local transit made more attractive. Apprentice service organizations would offer dorms, support for foreign apprentices, counseling and cultural activities. Skilled trades would get more money for inter-company training, and training alliances would be strengthened. The training guarantee would be made inclusive and assisted training improved. Youth employment agencies would serve nationwide as a central point of contact, and the German Qualifications Framework would be written into law.

The Greens want BAföG (student and training aid) to cover living costs and be adjusted regularly as those costs rise. It should depend less on family income, and dorms would continue to be funded.

BAföG is state money for students and apprentices. It should rise regularly when life gets more expensive. Parents' income should count less. Siblings' income should no longer count at all. There should be more low-cost dorms.

A higher grant share is under review so that less has to be repaid as a loan. The housing allowance would follow local rents, and gaps between applications should be avoided. For Aufstiegs-BAföG (aid for advanced vocational training), the living allowance would also be available part-time, equivalent qualifications would be covered and applications would be fully digital. Easier access to university for international students and refugees is under review. The "Junges Wohnen" program for building and renovating dorms would be made permanent, with more focus on apprentices.

The Greens want to renovate university buildings together with the states and make them climate-friendly. The federal-state agreements that fund higher education and research are to continue and be expanded.

Many university buildings are old or run-down. The Greens want to renew them together with the states. The buildings should become good for the climate. Universities should also get reliable funding.

An initiative called "ZukunftsCampus" is meant to renew lecture halls, labs, cafeterias and libraries and turn them into places where sustainable and digital change is tried out. Universities are to get social infrastructure, and digital teaching is to be supported. The party wants to continue and further develop the federal-state pacts. Solid basic funding is meant to give planning security. The overhead allowances paid with program and project grants are to rise, and red tape is to be cut so that researchers have more time for their work.

The Greens want fewer academic staff on fixed-term contracts, especially after the doctorate. Permanent tasks are to be done by staff with permanent positions. The platform sees this as a condition for fair opportunities in academia.

Many researchers only have short-term contracts. The Greens want to change that. More researchers should get permanent jobs. Research work and family life should fit together better.

Academic qualification is to count less often as a reason for a fixed-term contract. Career paths other than the professorship are to be strengthened and staffing structures modernized, supported by a program with the states. The rule that currently bars collective agreements from setting different terms (Tarifsperre) is to be dropped. Compatibility with family life is to be firmly built into qualification paths. Women are to receive targeted support, and the party wants to act against abuse of power and discrimination.

The Greens want to defend academic freedom: only scholarly standards are to decide who gets research funding. At the same time, international exchange for researchers and students is to become easier.

The Greens want to protect the freedom of research. Politicians should not decide which research gets money. Researchers from other countries should be able to come to Germany more easily. More people should be able to study abroad.

For exchange, the platform names faster visas, stronger intermediary organizations and more advice for universities and research institutes. More people are to be able to go abroad through Erasmus+. The party opposes the disparaging of whole fields such as climate or gender research. Science communication is to be strengthened. Researchers are to be protected from hostility and boycotts based on their origin, religion or nationality.