School struggle (Netherlands)

The School Struggle or Schoolstrijd is a historical conflict in the Netherlands between 1848 and 1917 over the equalization of public financing for religious schools.

The preliminary start of the struggle was during the French occupation of the Low countries. In 1795 the French introduced the separation of church and state. Due to this, education became a matter of the state. Prior to this, the Dutch reformed church had most power over education for centuries. The French did not forbid the Christian schools, but they needed permission of the government, which was not given in all cases. Funding of Christian schools was out of the question. Religion was not completely banned from education, however.

In the law on schools (schoolwet) of 1806 it was stated that public schools should educate for all Christian and civilian virtues. Many Protestants thought this basis not sufficient. Especially the later ARP politicians Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer and Abraham Kuyper wanted more religion in education and wanted special schools apart from the public schools.

Following the Protestants, also the Roman Catholics came into the struggle. In 1840 they handed a list of complaints to King William I, showing the backlog of the Roman Catholics in the country. This list especially featured education.

Part of the solution came from the constitution of liberal politician Thorbecke in 1848. In the constitution freedom of education was included. Thorbecke himself was in favor of public education, but he thought that anybody should be allowed to establish a school, if the teachers were of good quality.

Missing in the constitution was a paragraph on funding of schools. In 1857 a law was introduced which made it more expensive to go to a school for children, caused by arrangements on salary of teachers, class size etc. Due to this, Jewish schools disappeared, but special Christian schools kept their position.

In 1878 again a new law was introduced by Kappeyne van de Coppello, which increased the cost of education even more. The non-public schools had to fund these additional costs themselves. As a consequence, the poorest Protestants and Catholics could not send their children to their preferred school. The revolts of the people resulted in a petition to King William III, in which they asked him not to sign the new law. The petition was signed by more than 300.000 persons of Protestant origin. An alternative petition of the Roman Catholics received 100.000 signatures. The king however signed the law on 17 August of the same year.

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