Overview

• Berlin currently provides free school lunches and transport for all students, but fiscal pressures have prompted a review of their sustainability.
• Education Senator Katharina Günther-Wünsch has raised concerns about the cost of these programs, which total in the hundreds of millions of euros annually.
• She proposed exploring income-based subsidies, similar to Hamburg's model, where low-income families receive full support and others contribute based on income.
• Günther-Wünsch emphasized the need to balance accessibility with maintaining educational quality under limited budgets.
• No policy changes have been enacted yet, but formal debates and budget evaluations are now underway to determine the programs' future.