Funding for Impact? Immigrant Students and Supplementary School Funding in Germany
Policy Brief | January 2016
School funding in Germany’s 16 states (Laender) does not adequately account for the poorer educational opportunities of the country’s sizable immigrant population. Today, even schools in challenging circumstances are sometimes overlooked by school authorities and receive just as much supplementary funding as the average school, in some cases, even less, in spite of their greater need. An analysis of teacher allocation in the Laender shows that only nine of the 16 Laender have put in place indicators with which to measure a school’s individual need for supplementary funding. Going forward, the Laender should allocate a substantial portion of their subsidies based on school and neighbourhood data. In addition to data, they should also make use of the expert knowledge of local school administrators who allocate the remaining resources.
