The government plans to increase the amount allocated to educational needs. But PLN 3.6 billion may not be enough.

• The government plans a major adjustment to the pool of funds allocated to meeting educational needs in 2026.
• This is mainly due to a change in the way the education of Ukrainian refugee children will be financed from next year.
• The amount of funds for educational needs should increase by approximately PLN 3.6 billion, but the scale of changes is not yet known.

Another round of talks between local governments and the Ministry of National Education and the Ministry of Finance regarding the financing of educational projects, this time held as part of a plenary session of the Joint Government and Local Government Commission, failed to yield any concrete solutions. Local government officials assessed that numerous changes were once again announced, but they were still in the preparation phase .

The only tangible change that practically dominated the discussion at the National Council of the Family and Guardianship Committee (KWRiST) was the draft bill adopted by the Council of Ministers amending the Act on Assistance to Ukrainian Citizens in Connection with the Armed Conflict on the Territory of Ukraine and Certain Other Acts, which will change the method of financing the education of Ukrainian children . Under this bill, the legal residence of Ukrainian citizens in Poland is extended until March 4, 2026, and at the same time:

Additional tasks related to the upbringing, education and care of the children of Ukrainian war refugees will be financed until the end of this year from the Aid Fund, while from January 2026, tasks related to the education of these children will be included in the total amount of educational needs, which will of course be increased accordingly for 2026.

- said, among others, Beata Pawłowska, head of department in the Department of Cooperation with Local Government of the Ministry of National Education, who presented legislative changes planned by the Ministry of National Education, aimed at reducing the costs of implementing educational tasks.

This announcement greatly outraged representatives of local government corporations. And it's hardly surprising, as this amounts to a substantial 3.6 billion złoty for the education of Ukrainian children . Therefore, local government officials attempted to obtain assurances from Hanna Majszczyk, Deputy Minister of Finance, that this amount would be included in the pool of funds designated for educational needs.

The responses from the Ministry of Finance representative, while reassuring, were ambiguous. One of them was that if the Minister of Education is talking about reallocating appropriate funds, then it will definitely happen.

And representatives of local government units would probably accept this explanation, were it not for the fact that - as the corporations calculate - they needed a drip of PLN 17 billion to implement educational tasks this year and that just a few weeks earlier the Ministry of Finance had made public the planned amount of educational needs in 2026, indicating that it would amount to PLN 111.5 billion and would be almost PLN 9 billion higher than this year's amount.

Only when Ewa Tomczak, treasurer of Bytom, and Jacek Brygman, mayor of Cekcyn and vice-chairman of the Association of Rural Municipalities of the Republic of Poland, asked directly about the increase in the amount of educational needs for 2026, if PLN 3.6 billion for Ukrainian children should be deducted from these PLN 9 billion , and this in a situation when it is already known that the funds for educational needs next year will certainly not meet them, did the answer everyone was waiting for come true:

This is a misunderstanding. The amounts you (representatives of the local government side - ed.) have for educational needs do not include funds for Ukrainian children . The amount that was provided did not include these funds yet, because the law on assistance to Ukrainian citizens was only introduced this week. So I want to correct this.

- explained the deputy minister.

She also pointed out that the issue raised by local government officials regarding the lack of funds to cover the costs of increased severance pay for teachers and jubilee awards, resulting from the draft law amending the Teachers' Charter that has just been adopted by the Sejm, is being incorrectly interpreted by the local government.

Severance pay under the Teachers' Charter Act will also not be financed from local government budgets. This is clearly stated in the justification (for the draft bill - ed.) that there will be a reserve for this, and funds will be distributed according to need. So, ladies and gentlemen, don't get your feelings stirred up. This isn't even stated in the act itself. If it were, the act we're discussing wouldn't have the financial consequences shown (in the OSR).

- she stated.

However, Deputy Minister Majszczyk was unable to answer the question of when this increased amount for next year's needs would be included in the draft budget, and what it would even be . And, as she emphasized, she would not have such information on July 30th, the day of the next KWRiST meeting.

This doesn't change the fact that planned changes to the financing of educational tasks are to be discussed in detail on this very day. Because, as local government officials stated, the changes presented by the Ministry of National Education today brought nothing new.

The local government hopes that this time it will be held with the participation of Prime Minister Donald Tusk.