2025 Budget: the announced freeze on the Culture pass could jeopardize school trips

Fini les sorties au musée pour les élèves ? Archive Midi Libre

Le budget, qui va être examiné cette semaine à l'Assemblée nationale, impose un coup de rabot sur un dispositif très utilisé dans les écoles, collèges et lycées. Les syndicats ou les parents d'élèves sont vent debout.

Anger in schools. The educational community learned on Thursday that the ministry is preparing to cut and freeze the Culture Pass, a system that allows students to organize and finance cultural activities.

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Explanations. Schools, middle schools and high schools can schedule outings to the theater, cinema or museum, via the Adage platform, which has dedicated funding. This was €97 million in 2024, a collective share that the Ministry of National Education finally decided to reduce by €22 million, as part of the 2025 budget vote, to bring it to only €72 million. This sum will be divided by two, “€50 million for the period from January to June, €22 million for the period from September to December”, the ministry announced.

€40 million already used

Except that, at the same time, we learned that €40 million had already been validated and committed for the end of this school year. In other words, with this substantial cut and the reserve set aside for the start of the 2025-2026 school year, there is only… €10 million left for all establishments in France for the next five months. In fact, many teachers tried to make reservations on Adage this Friday, a massive influx of requests that had the effect of blocking the platform.

The CGT Éduc’action and the National Federation of Parents’ Councils (FCPE) very quickly expressed their anger at a decision deemed “unilateral and incomprehensible that disregards the unwavering commitment of teachers to organize these educational outings”.

Puy-du-Fou eligible for the Culture pass

This decision was all the more controversial because, at the same time, Rachida Dati decided to make the flagship show of the Puy-du-Fou, in Vendée, announcement that follows requests from the National Rally and the Republicans in the cultural affairs committee of the National Assembly. However, this freeze could also have an impact on small theaters, festivals and other cultural structures that managed to maintain a precarious budgetary balance thanks to school trips.