„String concert“ in the canton of Thurgau

Since 2023, the income statement of the Canton of Thurgau has closed with an expense surplus.
Despite this, the cantonal parliament rejected a tax increase in 2024, but at the same time major investments are necessary. In April 2025, the cantonal government of Thurgau therefore decided to initiate a task and reduction plan (AVP 2025-2027) with the aim of saving CHF 40 million in 2027 and at least CHF 80 million per year from 2028. It mandated the Institute of Public Administration Management ZHAW and publicXdata AG to critically examine all tasks and services of the cantonal administration, compare them with other cantons and draw up a consultancy report.
The external consultants propose 50 measures: for example, the cantonal parliament should only have 100 seats instead of 130, savings should be made in public transport, care, schools, the promotion of renewable energies and even agriculture, and of course the cultural sector should not be spared: here they propose waiving the payment of the cultural burden equalization to the canton of St.Gallen, i.e. no longer supporting the St.Gallen municipal theater and reducing the contribution to music schools from 50% to 33%. The 17% saved by the canton on the salary and operating costs of the music schools could be borne by the parents.

The SMPV Thurgau, together with the Thurgau Music Schools Association VMTG and the Swiss Music Schools Association VMS, are fighting against this. The three associations have each submitted a consultation response, and the SMPV Thurgau has launched a petition to the cantonal government and collected 1862 signatures in support of its concerns in a short space of time.

The authors of the advisory report base their proposal to cut cantonal contributions to music schools on the VMS's 2025 statistical report on music schools in Switzerland. They write verbatim: „The background to this is that current cantonal funding is on the generous side compared to other cantons.“ In doing so, they have completely ignored the fact that the models for the extent to which cantons, municipalities and elementary school contribute to the financing of music school costs vary greatly from canton to canton. In the canton of Thurgau, the municipalities are free to make a contribution to music school lessons or not. This means that only 8% of the costs are covered by the municipalities. A careful examination of the VMS statistics shows that the other cantons, in which the communes bear less than 10% of the music school costs, bear 60 - 69% of the costs themselves. They are therefore considerably more generous than the canton of Thurgau.

If we look at the current burden on parents in the canton of Thurgau, we can see from the statistics that only parents in the cantons of Ticino, Schwyz, Aargau and Schaffhausen have to pay more in percentage terms than those in Thurgau. If they now had to pay an additional 17% of the music school costs, i.e. parental contributions would increase by an average of 35% or more, the canton of Thurgau would be the canton with the highest average parental contributions.

Statistics can of course be viewed from all angles, but for parents the decisive factor is how much their children's music school bill is in francs and centimes and whether they can afford to send their children to music school. In the canton of Thurgau, if you are lucky enough to live in a municipality that does make a small contribution, you currently pay between CHF 450 (Aadorf) and CHF 640 (Weinfelden) for 18 times 30 minutes of individual lessons and between CHF 600 and CHF 820 for 40 minutes of lessons.
By way of comparison, the semester fee at the Zurich Conservatory of Music costs CHF 640 for 30 minutes of lessons and CHF 850 for 40 minutes. However, the salary level in the canton of Zurich is clearly higher than in the canton of Thurgau. This means that the burden of music school fees for parents in the canton of Thurgau is already higher than in Zurich. If we compare the tariffs with those in the canton of St.Gallen, we see that Niederhelfenschwil (CHF 400.-), Uzwil (CHF 410.-) and Rorschach-Rorschacherberg (CHF 420.-) have music schools with lower tariffs.

Politically, of course, one could argue that music lessons are not that important and that children could play football instead if music lessons are too expensive, were it not for Article 67a of the Federal Constitution and Article 12a of the Federal Act on the Promotion of Culture (KFG). Article 67a states that the Confederation and the cantons shall promote music education, particularly for children and young people, and Article 12a of the KFG states that music schools supported by the cantons and/or municipalities must offer all children and young people up to upper secondary level tariffs that are significantly lower than adult tariffs and that they must take the economic situation of parents into account when setting these tariffs.
We know how important music lessons are for brain development, for fine motor skills, language development and the ability of children and young people to concentrate, and how they positively influence their social behavior, which is why it is very important to us that children from lower-income families can also benefit from these lessons. And of course, as a professional association, we don't want our colleagues in Thurgau, who already have to accept lower salaries than music teachers in the neighboring cantons of Zurich and St. Gallen, to suffer a reduction in their workload because high music school fees are deterring more and more parents from sending their children to music school.

In its petition to the cantonal government, the SMPV Thurgau makes two proposals as to how the canton could save some of the subsidies without having to increase parental contributions so massively. Firstly, it proposes that the canton and the municipalities divide the 17% to be saved between them, whereby the municipalities would now be obliged to make a fixed contribution. And secondly, he suggests thinking about income-based music school fees.

And dear politicians in the canton of Thurgau, when you think about whether to cut back on music schools, don't think about the neighbor's child who once disturbed you with his first attempts at the violin or recorder with still crooked notes, but about the many music students who, thanks to their music school lessons, later strengthen the amateur orchestra, sing in the mixed choir at the village festival or serenade the 90-year-old jubilarian with the brass band. And don't forget the talented individuals who will go on to study music, give great concerts and train the next generation of musicians of the day after tomorrow.