Many parties in the House of Representatives would have preferred not to debate the education budget Thursday. Since Wednesday there have been many discussions behind the scenes about softening the government's billions in cuts. But the coalition parties refused to postpone.

Delay after delay

So the debate continued with Minister of Education Bruins as the first speaker. Most noteworthy was his announcement that the long-study fine will be delayed. The law change will not take effect in 2026, as agreed in the cabinet's outline agreement, and not in 2027 as he estimated in October, but “in September 2028 at the earliest,” Bruins said.

This creates a budget problem of more than half a billion euros, because the cut was already booked. The gap is 95 million euros in 2026, 285 million in 2027 and some 190 million in 2028. Bruins: “It is a hard cut and I stand for that.” In a few months, he will come up with a solution to the hole in his budget.

Or not?

At least, if the fine is still forthcoming. Because last month it was leaked that the minister is looking for an alternative. The measure hits some groups harder than others and would become so complicated due to the desired exceptions that the minister would not be able to work with it.

And then also, since Wednesday, negotiations have been in progress with opposition parties from the “monster alliance” of D66, CDA and JA21, which now includes SGP and ChristenUnie as well. They threaten to vote against the budget in the Senate and want to reverse 1.3 billion of the cuts in education. These opposition parties explicitly also have the long-study fine in their sights.

“Harsh”

As the fine is faltering, the opposition chopped into it even more on Thursday. It is a “harsh” measure, said CDA MP Harmen Krul. And Sandra Beckerman of the SP knew why the minister said last week that he needs extra time to work out the fine: “Because there simply is no substantiation for this.”

Beckerman pointed out that students already say they take the fine into account when choosing their studies. “For example, they don't pursue STEM studies, because it is known that many students there take longer to study.” Delay costs money, is the idea of the long-study penalty. More than one year of delay costs an additional three thousand euros per year, PVV, VVD, NSC and BBB decided in May. 

Not a fan

Bruins is not a fan of the long-study fine himself, he revealed several times. He is looking for an alternative and knows the fine could disappear in the coming days. But while it is still official policy, he also cannot say much more reassuring about it than this: “I hear that students are wondering if they should still go to college. So I would say: just choose your studies.”

He himself raised another issue of principle. Is it acceptable to suddenly confront students who have already started their studies with a long-study fine? Actually no, Bruins thought. But then again: “I have to abide by the financial frameworks of the goverment's outline agreement."

“Substantial plus”

At the end of the debate, Bruins advised against all opposition plans that weaken his cuts. Including the amendment from CDA, D66 and JA21. But that was already irrelevant to MP Joost Eerdmans of the latter party.

Of course, it had been an uncomfortable debate, Eerdmans concluded. “Because we know we are talking about a budget that is still being tinkered with.” With the negotiations ahead, he apparently still envisioned things working out just fine: “I think the minister might be pleased to see a substantial plus in his budget next week.”