Rising costs and tight budgets force Bavarian schools to cancel class trips
Schools in Bavaria are cancelling long-planned class trips as travel costs soar and the state reduces teacher travel allowances in its 2026/27 austerity budget.
Rising costs and budget cuts
School trips in Bavaria are under threat as travel expenses climb and public funding shrinks. Michael Schwägerl, chairman of the Bavarian Philologists' Association, said bus and hotel prices have "exploded" since the pandemic, while the state's 2026/27 austerity budget reduced the pool for teacher travel allowances. The combination has left many schools unable to cover the per diems for accompanying staff.
In recent years, travel costs have risen even though nothing was changed in the trip programmes. Bus prices have exploded, hotel costs have also exploded after Corona.
Impact on schools
Some trips have already been cancelled at short notice. Claudia Bergemann, from the parents' council of the Gymnasium Ottobrunn near Munich, described how the booster club stepped in to donate money to the school account so that teacher per diems could be paid, preventing the cancellation of all trips planned for that month. Without that intervention, she said, the trips would have been scrapped.
We jumped into the breach and paid this money into the school account as a donation via the booster club, so that the daily allowances for the teachers could be paid. Otherwise they would have had to cancel all the trips at short notice that were still planned for that month.
Funding mechanisms
Schools in Bavaria receive a budget for teacher travel costs based on class or student numbers. A Realschule with 20 classes currently gets around 3,200 euros, while a Gymnasium with 800 students receives about 6,900 euros, according to the culture ministry. When the allocation runs out, many teachers forgo part of their travel expenses or booster clubs fill the gap with donations. In 2024, roughly 170,000 euros in third-party funds flowed to Gymnasien, equivalent to about seven percent of the state budget.
Creative workarounds
To cut costs, schools often try to secure free seats from bus companies or complimentary beds for teachers, though they may accept such offers only if they are made voluntarily. Foreign trips are especially expensive, and Schwägerl noted that many Gymnasien have already revised their programmes in response to the funding squeeze.
