The voter group FÜR Karlsruhe considers the financing concept for daycare centers in Karlsruhe to be a failure. We warned in advance of the financial impossibility of free daycare under the current conditions. The necessity of another price increase for daycare places now confirms this assessment, meaning that the vision of long-term free daycare cannot be realized.
In Karlsruhe, daycare centers are operated both by the city and by independent providers and are financed by parental contributions and city subsidies. Independent providers only receive full funding if their costs per daycare place do not exceed those of the municipal facilities by more than 10 percent. This forces independent providers to reduce additional services, which in turn impairs the quality of care and the creation of new daycare places by independent providers in Karlsruhe is becoming increasingly unattractive.
The most recent increase in fees for municipal daycare centers was unavoidable due to increased tariff and energy costs. This increase now also allows the independent providers to adjust their contributions accordingly.
The independent providers in Karlsruhe have already sharply criticized the city’s previous funding concept in an incendiary letter under the umbrella organization “Karlsruher Elterninitiativen e.V.”.
City Councillor Friedemann Kalmbach explains: “The goal of ensuring that daycare centers in Karlsruhe are free of charge is an honorable one. However, reality shows that this is not feasible under the current conditions. Our focus must now be on ensuring the quality of care, recruiting specialist staff and creating new daycare places. We have already called for a concept to provide living space for nursery teachers in order to increase the attractiveness of the profession and make it easier for them to move to Karlsruhe. The city must now develop a new financing concept”
