Education should not face spending cuts as part of efforts to get government spending back under control, Mariëtte Hamer, leader of the parliamentary Labour party, told an election meeting in Groningen on Monday.

Education should be given a ‘separate status’, Hamer said. And while greater efficiency can free up some money in the education budget, vocational training could do with more investment, she said.
Some 20 special committees are currently looking at all areas of government spending to try to identify cuts or tax increases to generate €35bn. Their reports are due before June and final decisions are timetabled to come before the 2011 budget presentation in September

Ministers
On Monday, it emerged that divisions are already looming between ministers about the cuts. Although no formal proposals have yet been made, home affairs minister Guusje ter Horst said at the weekend the police should be spared.
And foreign minister Maxime Verhagen told a conference it would be very shortsighted to cut the defence ministry budget in ‘this uncertain world’.
The mayors of the country’s four big cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and the Hague have also called for a moratorium on education cuts and cuts in spending on the police.