Berliner Volksinitiative Schule in Freiheit

The Berlin popular initiative »Schools in Freedom« aims to strengthen educational freedom, equal financing and the independent organization of schools in Berlin. The initiative's first collection of signatures ended successfully in November 2010, after which the Berlin House of Representatives dealt with the matter in early 2011. A second collection of signatures ran until the beginning of November 2013. On November 5, 2013, the people's initiative handed over 29,180 signatures to the President of the Berlin House of Representatives, Ralf Wieland, and on February 27, 2014, the people's initiative was heard in the House of Representatives in Berlin.

Objectives of the popular initiative

The popular initiative aims to establish the following principles in the Berlin school system:

Pedagogical freedom

The schools should be able to independently design the content and quality standards of their work.

Equal financing

The state and independent schools should be accessible without school fees.

Independent organization

All schools that want it should be given the greatest possible organizational independence.

The legal instrument of the people's initiative (part of the people's legislation in Berlin ) makes it possible to submit the concerns of the people's initiative to the House of Representatives. The popular initiative comes about when 20,000 Berlin residents who have reached the age of 16 and have had their primary residence in Berlin for at least three months sign it in the six months before the submission. After a popular initiative has been successfully submitted and examined, the House of Representatives must deal with and vote on it within four months. The House of Representatives can accept or reject the popular initiative, but may not change its essence. The representatives of the popular initiative can take part in the deliberations in the House of Representatives.

Carrier of the popular initiative

The people's initiative is supported by the Omnibus for Direct Democracy , a citizens' initiative that campaigns for the implementation of the referendum in Germany, Europe and on a global level. Current supporters of the popular initiative »School in Freedom« include (selection, as of June 2013):

• Responsible school campaign
• Working Group New Education (ANE)
• Berlin book table
• Citizens' initiative unconditional basic income eV
• Citizens' platform Wedding / Moabit
• Federal Association of Independent Alternative Schools (BFAS)
• Umbrella Association of Berlin Children's and Schoolchildren Shops (DaKS)
• European Democratic Education Community (EUDEC)
• European Forum for Freedom in Education (effe)
• Economy for the common good Berlin
• Initiative with one another
• Montessori National Association
• Network Play / Culture Prenzlauer Berg eV
• German Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband LV Berlin
• Software AG Foundation
• Future Foundation Education in the GLS Treuhand eV

Popular initiative 2010/2011

The collection of signatures for the first initiative began on May 18, 2010. On November 23, 2010, the initiative handed over 28,717 signatures to Walter Momper , then President of the House of Representatives, of which 24,420 were found to be valid. On January 13, 2011, there was a first debate in the House of Representatives on the popular initiative. On March 10, 2011, the initiators presented their popular initiative at a hearing there. On April 7th, the committee issued a recommendation for a resolution in which some points of the popular initiative were included in a modified form. In the final discussion of the popular initiative on April 14, 2011, this recommendation was adopted with a majority of the SPD and the Left .

The decision of the House of Representatives on the popular initiative contained two implementation projects:

1. Independently sponsored schools are to receive a “significantly more transparent process that is easier to plan for the schools than was previously the case with financing”, which is to be introduced at no cost. For this purpose, a working group was set up in the Berlin Senate to calculate the student cost rates.

2. As far as state schools are concerned, the House of Representatives “basically also supported the popular initiative's demand for more autonomy in the organization of schools”.

In the opinion of the popular initiative, both projects have not yet been sufficiently implemented (as of June 2013).

Popular initiative 2013

A second collection of signatures was started on April 29, 2013 and collected signatures until the beginning of November 2013. The three main objectives of the current initiative have remained the same as in 2010, but their detailed implementation has been revised and specific implementation proposals have been added.

On November 5, 2013, the popular initiative handed over 29,180 signatures to the President of the Berlin House of Representatives, Ralf Wieland, of which 25,715 were found to be valid. On January 16, the plenary session of the House of Representatives referred the popular initiative "Schools in Freedom" to the Committee for Education, Youth and Family, where a hearing with the five persons of trust of the popular initiative took place on February 27. After the hearing, a debate on the popular initiative must take place in the plenum of the Berlin House of Representatives.

See also

• Direct democracy
• Direct democracy in Berlin
• Popular initiative (Germany)
• Referendum (Germany)

Web links

• Internet presence of the initiative "School in Freedom"
• Voting Act (regulations for procedures at state level) on the website of the Berlin State Returning Officer
• Ordinance on the implementation of the law on popular initiatives, referendums and referendums (Voting Regulations - AbstO) (PDF; 11 kB) on the Berlin state portal

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Aims of the Berlin people's initiative School in Freedom ( Memento of the original from November 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ Verbatim minutes (PDF; 160 kB) of the meeting of the Committee on Education, Youth and Family on April 10, 2011.
3. ↑ Resolution recommendation ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 42 kB) of the parliamentary committee for education, youth and family. 
4. ↑ Aims of the Berlin people's initiative School in Freedom ( Memento of the original from November 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ↑ Verbatim minutes (PDF) of the meeting of the Committee on Education, Youth and Family on February 27, 2014.