In addition to the 4,000 cuts to teaching positions foreseen in the 2025 finance bill, another wave of savings affects schools, middle and secondary education centers, to varying degrees depending on the territory: local authorities are reducing budgets for the operation of educational centers. Weakened by rising energy costs at the outbreak of war in Ukraine in 2022, by inflation in raw material and food prices, and by the removal of tax levers such as the housing tax, they have budgets increasingly restricted.
The 5 billion euros of savings requested from communities by the Government within the framework of the 2025 finance bill that is being debated further reinforce budgetary dominance. The departments, on which the faculties depend when the secondary schools belong to the regions and the schools to the municipalities, are especially affected.
With 63,000 buildings and almost 157 million square meters, schools, middle and secondary education centers represent almost a third of public assets. Communities are responsible, among other things, for school buildings (in particular heating bills), for catering or for the purchase of equipment. Middle and high schools are in the process of learning the amounts of these global operating grants for 2025, and some are looking bleak.
In the North, the department voted on September 23 in favor of a reduction of around 30% in the allocations assigned to its 200 schools, thus achieving more than 10 million euros of savings. The community – which did not respond to our questions – defends, in a public session, a reduction in energy spending, after two years of increase, and indicates that it remains above the assigned allocations in 2022. Given this decrease, the rectors of Universities are wondering what to do. In an open letter addressed to the president of the departmental council, Christian Poiret (on the right), the leadership of the SNPDEN-UNSA union judges the blocking situations “almost inevitable”while the establishments must vote on their budget at the end of November.
“Adjustment variable”
Despite the increase in the number of university students, Essonne is reducing the operating budget of public schools by 430,000 euros out of a total of 7 million euros, according to the community. Jérôme Bérenger (Les Républicains, LR), vice president responsible for universities and educational success, acknowledges having requested “an effort in the public schools of Essonne” but he judges him “limit”, ” temporary “ and necessary in view of “the precipitous decline in income coupled with a continuous increase [des] mandatory social spending »WHO “generates a budget shock of about 50 million euros by 2025” for the department.
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