A lot of criticism of the kindergarten closures in Linz

In many Linz kindergartens there was only one topic of conversation yesterday: the surprisingly announced merger of facilities in the summer. Carina Brandner-Harrer from Dornach is also angry. Your daughter is three years old and has just settled into kindergarten. “If she is sick for a longer period of time or we are on vacation, she needs time to get used to it again,” she says in an OÖN interview. Marina Braumann feels the same way. “We can’t easily send our daughter into a foreign environment; unfortunately that doesn’t work,” she says. But that is exactly the city’s plan.

More on the subject: Why four out of ten Linz kindergartens stay in the summer

As reported, around 40 percent of kindergartens close in the last week of July and the first two weeks of August. The children are distributed to other facilities – professional care is guaranteed, says the responsible deputy mayor, Karin Hörzing. The background is the ongoing staff shortage and higher vacation entitlement for teaching assistants. Economic reasons also play a role.

Anger about timing

Many parents are particularly annoyed by the timing at which the measure was announced. “We were pressured by the kindergarten throughout January and February to announce the vacation times and have already booked the vacation,” says Brandner-Harrer. Now you can’t just postpone it, especially since you have to coordinate vacations with your employer and work colleagues. “You plan and do and do, and then something like this is presented to you afterwards.” According to Hörzing, they wanted to wait for the vacations to be announced in order to be able to assess the need. She does not expect the measure to further reduce capacity utilization because parents leave their children at home, at least that is not the intention.

There is also criticism from the political side. The Linz Greens describe the measure as a “huge step backwards”. “When we talk about balancing work and family, reliable, high-quality care for children is the necessary foundation,” says city councilor Eva Schobesberger and hopes that the closure will be at most an exception for this year. For Hörzing this is “illusory”; she does not expect the reasons for the measure to change substantially in a year. Criticism also comes from the FPÖ, which is trying to play the migration card on this issue too. Linz is growing too quickly, says local councilor Peter Stumptner, especially due to “uncontrolled” immigration from abroad. Now we are reaping the fruits of this bad policy.

In any case, Brandner-Harrer and other parents would like the measure to be reversed – at least for this year. So that the vacation doesn’t become a problem.

These kindergartens have three weeks in summer:

• Marienberg 51
• Dornacher Straße 7
• Leonfeldner Straße 102a
• Webergasse 5
• Freistädter Straße 135b
• Cremeristraße 10
• Darrgutstrasse 16
• Garrison Street 33
• Langgasse 13
• Ludlgasse 8a
• Minnesängerplatz 12
• Römerstrasse 92
• Breitwiesergutstrasse 7
• Kraussstrasse 8
• Brucknerstrasse 38
• Werndlstrasse 30
• Hebenstreitstrasse 4
• Wieningerstrasse 19
• Tungassingerstrasse 13
• In the Auerpeint 5
• Auwiesenstrasse 22-24
• Auwiesenstrasse 130
• Auwiesenstrasse 60
• Pestalozzistrasse 84
• Ziererfeldstrasse 50

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