All schools wish what Federal Minister of Education Bettina Stark-Watzinger announced.

Schools should not be closed again in the corona pandemic, she said now and was able to explain this well.

The side effects were so diverse and serious that Stark-Watzinger looked back and described the closures as a mistake.

The Ministers of Education are largely in agreement with her in this assessment.

However, not all ministers are likely to be convinced that closures must always be considered inappropriate.

Maybe they have become wiser after three Corona school years.

What is appropriate or not, however, is largely decided by the development of the corona risk.

As far as that is concerned, the sentence still applies: never say never.

Corona restricts school sovereignty

For the Ministers of Education, it is also a matter of giving them back full sovereignty over their schools.

The Infection Protection Act disputes this sovereignty, at least under corona conditions.

Since the end of 2021, the federal states have no longer been able to make sovereign decisions about school closures.

It is no coincidence that this goes back to the FDP, which the Federal Ministry of Education would like to expand into an educational policy control center.

An offensive for the time after Corona is therefore hidden in Stark-Watzinger's advertising for open schools and the fund against side effects.

The education ministers should be on their guard.