Christian schools Norway talk to politicians about grant cut

Last week, representatives of nine Christian schools in Norway invited representatives from the Storting. They wanted to talk about the grant cut that is most likely passed before the end of the year, as the Norwegian government approved the state budget for next year. That is reported by Dagen. Instead, the budget document advises the schools to increase their fees next year.

“We must work so that this loss of subsidy will not become permanent and so that we will get it back”, Ingunn Folkestad Breistein told the Norwegian newspaper. Folkestad Breistein is the principal at Ansgar Bible School. She thinks it “will be very demanding to leave everything to the students” and expects several will choose a different school instead.

Politicians from the Conservative Party, the conservative-liberal FRP party, the Socialist Party (SV) and the Christian Democratic KrF came to the meeting. The ruling parties ignored the invitation of the Bible schools.

FRP politician Helge André Njåstad found it good that the Bible schools organised a meeting with politicians from the Storting. “I have been in the Storting for nine years, and today is the first time I have heard from the Bible schools”, he said to the principals.

Njåstad thinks that Bible schools should receive more support. He believes it is all about protecting the Christian cultural heritage of Norway. Therefore, he has opposed the grant cut. “It is serious that an important social actor is experiencing such a dramatic change in conditions. Personally, I do not see a big difference between a Bible school and a folk college. The fact that you should both get fewer study credits and higher costs seems strange to me”, he said to Dagen.

Currently, secular schools receive more support and students from these schools get more credentials than students from Christian schools. At the same time, a committee <a href=" proposed" target="_blank">https://www.dagen.no/nyheter/utvalg-vil-fjerne-alle-tilleggspoeng-veldig-uheldig-for-folkehoyskolene/) that Christian schools should be allowed to reward students the same amount of credentials.

The FRP politician encouraged Bible schools to speak up and make themselves more visible. Folkestad Breistein from the Ansgar Bible school agrees. “We have to show that we are social actors who build a society from below”, she says.

After the meeting with the principals, Christian Democratic leader Olaug Bollestad appealed to the governing parties by requesting them to look into the usefulness of the Bible schools. “This is about community building and building people. The Bible schools build security in each individual, which enables them to take responsibility”, he said to Dagen. According to Bollestad, Christian schools should speak up for themselves too. “It is important to build an understanding of what a Bible school is. It is not only sitting with your nose in the Bible; it is much more than that.”