Abstract

This short paper identifies three main structural problems of education reform policy in Bavaria which are deeply enrooted in regional tradition, mainstream self-perception and political ideology of the majority of voters. These aspects are (1) the democratically instituted structural conservatism of Bavarian school policy, (2) the administrative and civil servant attitude of decision-makers as well as teachers, and (3) the reproduction of socioeconomic and political elites by the current education system which provides no incentives for politically relevant peer groups to actually advocate its transformation. As a consequence, despite recent successes in international and national tests for schools, like PISA and PISA-E 2003, Bavaria is still far away from an optimal school system vis-à-vis overall performance as well as social equality of education opportunities. As is demonstrated by the example of the failed structural reforms in the school system after 1945, these fundamental problems of Bavarian education policy cannot be expected to be changed shortly.