SPD on education

The SPD wants education to be free of fees from daycare to the highest qualification, for both academic and vocational paths. It also calls for a legal guarantee that scheduled lessons take place. According to the platform, a person's background should not determine their opportunities.

The SPD wants education without fees. This should apply from daycare to a master's degree or master craftsman title. A law should also guarantee school lessons. Then no lessons should be canceled anymore.

Fees would be dropped at every level, including master's degrees and the Meister (master craftsman) qualification. The guarantee of lessons would be written into law. The platform justifies it by pointing to canceled lessons, overworked teachers and a lack of daycare places in the state. The SPD says the goal is equal opportunities for everyone.

The SPD wants to remove all fees for Meister (master craftsman) training and other advanced vocational qualifications, to put vocational education on par with academic education. For the skilled trades, it calls for doubling the start-up grant for master craftsmen to 20,000 euros. Part-time apprenticeships would also be promoted more.

People who want to become master craftsmen should no longer pay fees. This should also apply to similar qualifications, such as technician. Master craftsmen who start a business should get 20,000 euros. The SPD also wants more people to know about part-time apprenticeships.

Fees would be dropped for advanced training under the Vocational Training Act and the Crafts Code, such as Fachwirt, technician, Betriebswirt and Fachkaufmann qualifications. The deadline to apply for the start-up grant would rise from two to four years; the platform points to businesses closing for lack of a successor. Vocational training centers would get reliable funding, and career guidance at Gymnasium schools would treat both paths equally. For part-time apprenticeships, the SPD plans an information campaign, permanent funding for the relevant network and a state top-up of low pay. Seamless, free childcare is meant to let women in particular work full time.

The SPD wants to abolish daycare (Kita) fees for all children and guarantee every child a place close to home. The final daycare year would become compulsory as shared preparation for school. All-day programs at daycare centers and schools would be expanded.

The SPD wants free daycare for all children. Every child should get a place near home. The last year of daycare should be required. There should be more all-day care. School meals should be healthy and free.

The platform calls for binding quality standards, qualified staff and individual support. The language-focused daycare centers (Sprachkitas) are to be kept and expanded. To address staff shortages, the SPD relies on mixed professional teams, administrative and housekeeping staff, and incentives to return to the job or increase part-time hours. Home-based childcare is to get better funding, and daycare centers with many disadvantaged children are to receive more resources based on a social index. For all-day schools, the SPD wants educational quality, enough staff and space, and a free, healthy school lunch.

The SPD wants a legal guarantee that scheduled classes actually take place. To that end, more teachers are to be trained and substitute coverage better organized. The platform bases this on every child's right to an education under the state constitution.

The SPD wants classes to stop being canceled. This should be written into law. There should be more teachers. When a teacher is sick, a substitute should come quickly.

To address the teacher shortage, the SPD plans more university places and better conditions during studies and teacher training. Career changers are to find it easier and less bureaucratic to enter teaching, without lowering quality. The pool of substitutes for sick leave is to grow. New teachers are to be mentored by experienced colleagues when they start.

The SPD wants to simplify the school system into two equal tracks: the Gymnasium (academic high school) and an integrated second track built on the Gemeinschaftsschule (comprehensive school). Both would lead to the Abitur, the university entrance diploma. The party argues that a permeable system boosts motivation and equal opportunity.

The SPD wants only two kinds of secondary school. One is the Gymnasium. The other builds on the comprehensive school. Students can earn the top diploma at both. Vocational schools should get stronger too.

Cross-subject learning is to be expanded and curricula revised. The SPD wants to strengthen democracy education at all schools, including more weight for civics and a stronger role for student councils. Vocational schools are to be reinforced as the basis for securing skilled workers, with better language training, exchange programs for apprentices and psychosocial support in career preparation. The party will consider resuming co-funding of career-entry mentoring.

The SPD wants children with and without disabilities to learn together as the rule, backed by staff, rooms and reliable structures. Children with limited German are to get suitable language support from day one. The party treats inclusion as a human right and language support as a condition for integration.

Children with and without disabilities should learn together. That should be normal. Schools should get more staff and suitable rooms. Children who speak little German should get help right away. More people should be able to learn sign language.

The platform calls for two educators to work with one group at the same time soon. Special education centers (SBBZ) are to become regional support centers that advise mainstream schools and remain places of learning if parents wish. Individual school aides would evolve into municipal learning assistants, and inclusive teaching would be a fixed part of teacher training. German Sign Language is to be recognized, promoted and taught statewide. Preparatory classes will be developed further, language assessments carried out statewide, and heritage-language classes placed under state supervision.

The SPD wants to make digital education mandatory in all school types and subjects and set uniform rules for artificial intelligence in class. At the same time, private smartphone use in grades 1 through 6 would be banned by law. The party sees digital skills as part of a modern general education.

All students should learn how to use digital media. This should be required in all subjects. There should be the same rules for AI in class everywhere. In grades 1 to 6, private phones should be banned.

Students are to learn to handle digital media, technology and AI critically and creatively. Schools are to get reliable digital infrastructure, IT specialists and teaching concepts. Teachers will receive training in digital teaching methods. In the longer term, digital devices are to be counted among the free learning materials.

The SPD wants to use the federal renovation program specifically to modernize and build schools, and to match the federal money with an equal amount of state funds. According to the platform, many school buildings are run-down, not accessible or waste energy.

Many schools are in bad shape. The SPD wants to repair them or build new ones. The federal government gives money for this. The state should add the same amount. Schools should be modern and accessible.

The money is meant to deliver up-to-date classrooms, digitalization, accessibility and lower energy use. The SPD also wants to revise the state's funding guidelines for school construction. Each federal euro is to be matched by one state euro.

The SPD wants teachers at elementary and lower secondary schools to be paid at the A13/E13 pay grade as well. Mixed professional teams, more school social work and smaller classes are meant to relieve teachers so they can focus on teaching.

Teachers at elementary schools should earn more. They should earn as much as other teachers. More experts should help at schools, for example social workers and IT staff. Classes should be smaller. Teachers should have less paperwork.

Trainee teachers who are hired afterward are to be paid during the summer break, and specialist teachers get easier access to the academic career track. For future vocational school teachers, the required work experience is to be shorter, possible part-time and recognized more flexibly. School social work will be expanded statewide, with the state covering half the cost; school psychology will grow as well. Principals get guaranteed leadership time, administrative assistants and more decision-making leeway. Teachers' working hours are first to be surveyed, then time-recording models tested.

The SPD wants to secure reliable one-third funding for the Volkshochschulen (adult education centers) and raise the state's share of music schools' teaching staff costs to 15 percent. The platform regards both as key places for lifelong learning and cultural education.

Adult education centers should get secure funding. The state should pay one third of the costs. Music schools should get more money from the state. Adults should find it easier to earn school diplomas later in life.

For music schools, the 15 percent state share applies to recognized costs for teaching staff, which is meant to give them planning security. In the party's view, adult education centers matter for civic education, participation and changes in the world of work. Second-chance education is to become more flexible and more digital.

The SPD wants to expand Baden-Württemberg as a hub for top-level research and attract researchers from around the world. Those fleeing authoritarian states should be able to continue their academic work in the state. University spin-offs are to be made easier.

The SPD wants more research in the state. Researchers from other countries should be able to come more easily. This also applies to researchers fleeing unfree countries. People who start a company at a university should get more help.

The platform backs the Excellence Strategy and the innovation campus models such as Cyber Valley and Quantum BW. Small and mid-sized companies would get easier access to research infrastructure. For international researchers, it plans incentive programs, simpler visa and credential recognition procedures, and recruitment networks. Founders would get an extra year to build their start-up. It also plans a liaison office called “Wissenschaft und Arbeitswelt” (science and the world of work); universities would decide for themselves on a civil clause, a commitment to non-military research.

The SPD wants to scrap the fees for international students and for second degrees. In its view, the fees hurt the state as a place to study, make access to education harder and worsen the shortage of skilled workers.

Some students pay fees in Baden-Württemberg. These are students from abroad and people doing a second degree. The SPD wants to end these fees. The state should replace the missing money.

The fees affected are those for students from abroad and for a second degree. The platform points out that the number of international students is rising nationwide but stagnating in the state. The lost revenue for universities would be replaced from the state budget.

The SPD wants reliable funding for the student services organizations and to double the share of students with a dorm place by 2031. When BAföG (federal student aid) applications take a long time, most of the expected amount would be paid out automatically.

The SPD wants to help students more. There should be twice as many dorm places. Students who wait a long time for BAföG get a large part of the money early. BAföG is state aid for students. There should also be enough counseling for mental health problems.

Funding for the Studierendenwerke (student services organizations) would be adjusted regularly through a solidarity pact and topped up with a one-time inflation adjustment. The SPD wants to match the federal “Junges Wohnen” housing program with at least the same amount of state money and speed up procedures. Dorm rooms would not be tied to a housing entitlement certificate. The state would fully cover the cost of processing BAföG and digitalize the offices faster. After six weeks without a decision, 80 percent of the expected BAföG amount would be paid out.

The SPD wants to clear the renovation backlog at universities and university hospitals, using the reformed debt brake and federal money. The share of core funding in university budgets is to rise again.

Many buildings at universities and university hospitals are old. The SPD wants to repair and renew them. It also wants to use federal money for this. Universities should get more fixed money from the state. Planning and building should go faster.

The platform keeps the university funding agreement, which gives universities fixed core funding over several years. Planning and construction times would be shortened by cutting red tape, and university administration would become more digital. The SPD supports merging the university hospitals in Heidelberg and Mannheim into one network. It stands by the university hospitals' own collective agreement for nursing staff. The federal-state agreement “Studium und Lehre stärken” (strengthening study and teaching) would continue beyond 2028.

The SPD wants more permanent positions in academia and a collective agreement for student employees. Students would get a greater say, and protection plans are meant to prevent abuse of power at universities.

Many university staff only have temporary contracts. The SPD wants more permanent jobs. Student assistants should get a collective pay agreement. Students should have more say at their university. There should be better protection against abuse of power and sexual violence.

Permanent tasks would be matched with permanent positions for mid-level academic staff. For doctoral positions, a binding rule would reserve at least half of working time for the candidate's own qualification, and a code for good work would be drawn up with staff councils and university leadership. The plans include student vice-rectors, a restored political mandate for student representative bodies and cross-faculty lists in senate elections. All status groups would be equally represented in the central bodies. Against abuse of power, the platform foresees contact persons and, if possible, a central state-level complaints office.

The SPD wants to strengthen the universities of applied sciences with more research money and broader rights to award doctorates. Dual study programs at the DHBW (cooperative state university) are to grow with additional courses.

There are universities of applied sciences, called HAW. Students there learn close to practice. The SPD wants to give them more money for research. They should be able to award doctorates more often. Dual study programs should also offer more subjects.

The HAW would be able to offer part-time professorships and build up staff below the professor level. Teaching staff would be able to split their working time more flexibly between teaching, research and exchange with business and society. The state would commit to co-financing grants from the German Research Foundation. Universities of both types would cooperate more closely on a voluntary basis to avoid duplicate structures. At the cooperative state university, the decentralized sites would be strengthened and more professors hired on permanent contracts.

The SPD wants every child to be able to swim safely by the end of elementary school at the latest. Daycare centers and elementary schools would also have to offer daily exercise sessions. The platform regards swimming as part of basic education.

The SPD wants every child to learn to swim in elementary school. The goal is the bronze swimming badge. Children in daycare and elementary school should move every day. There will be fixed times for this.

A statewide pool program would fund the construction and renovation of swimming and teaching pools. Teachers would get initial and further training for swimming lessons, and mobile swimming facilities and cooperation with swimming clubs and the DLRG (lifesaving association) would be expanded. The daily exercise sessions would be run together with coaches, sports clubs and teachers. Schools and sports clubs are to cooperate long-term in all-day schooling, with fair pay for club staff.