About 100 children and their parents were left without usual care in Gmunden on Monday after the childminder association there had to file for bankruptcy on Friday. Those affected are desperate, opposition politicians see the failure of the state government and warn: this is just the beginning.
“On Friday, as always, I picked my daughter up at 11:30 a.m. and said, ‘See you Monday!’ Five hours later I found out that Monday no longer exists.’ The shock is still written on Anna Faritsch’s face. Almost overnight, the single mother lost care of her two-and-a-half-year-old child. As reported, the association of childminders in Gmunden has gone bankrupt – and blames this on the state government: the amount of state administrative contributions, with which the association financed infrastructure and salaries, has not been adjusted since 2014, despite rising costs.
“Radical endings are difficult and stressful”
After a year of maternity leave, she had to decide what to do next, says Anna Faritsch. The choice fell on the host parents: “They are the caregivers of our children, change their diapers and experience every step of their development. To now take that away from our children is very bad.” The childminders affected by the closure of the club are also shocked: “I cannot put into words how difficult and stressful this radical end is for me, my childcare children and their parents. says Julia-Sophie Klush from Ebensee.
Gmunden is not an isolated case
For the Neos, Gmunden is not an isolated case; they see a general system failure in Upper Austria when it comes to the care of children under the age of three: “According to the Childcare Atlas, only 6.4 percent of municipalities here have an offer that makes family and work compatible,” says Neos, club president Felix Eypeltauer. His deputy Julia Bammer warns: “Gmunden is just the beginning. We hear from many other childminder associations that they are only able to keep it up with great difficulty.”
Neos starts online petition
The Greens share the same opinion: “A daycare association here has clearly hit a wall,” says education spokesman Reinhard Ammer. “The end for the club in Gmunden does not come as a surprise and it is certainly not excluded that more will follow. If the state makes major cuts in funding and only increases it gently once, that is the inevitable consequence.’ The Neos now want to put pressure on the state government in this regard and on Monday they published the online petition on their website ‘Stop Starving’. daycare centers started.
Discussions are ongoing with the family association
However, a solution could soon emerge for the affected parents and children in Gmunden. As reported, the family association has offered to intervene in care and discussions are already underway. In this, Green Party leader Stefan Kaineder sees a “strange game played by the ÖVP with the country’s smallest children: Childcare in Upper Austria has been starved for years, and now they appear to be a daycare association with a party-affiliated organization that has gone bankrupt. Either way, the optics are skewed.”
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
