I suddenly hated the style of election statements this year. Holland is hopeful, doable, and good-natured. How program committees dream of their ideal world. How GroenLinks-PvdA once again bluntly states that “all children will soon be able to enroll in childcare and after-school care for free every day of the work week”.

What is this? Lalaland? As if this plan did not fail miserably during this period of government. In real life, a parent can hope that there is a place in their daycare. In real life, any attempt to improve the quality or increase language requirements in childcare is doomed to failure due to the lack of people who meet our ridiculously high educational standards for childcare in this country. Even if the workload measures that are also included in the GroenLinks-PvdA program should help even a little to reduce the shortage, there is still no scope for the expected increase in demand for childcare. However it is still there again. Free for everyone, 7 days a week. amazing!

There are so many possibilities in the dream worlds of political parties. Healthy living, for example. Behavior often plays the main role in chronic diseases. They are excellent at identifying the problem. But there seems to be a misunderstanding among political parties that: 1) this behavior can be effectively corrected through all kinds of lifestyle interventions and 2) that there is a whole army of people who have the time to do it. If the past 15 years of experience with lifestyle programs has shown anything, it’s that highly directed programs do work. The physiotherapist should hold the participant’s hand almost all day and the dietitian should bring the spoon containing the vegetables to the participant’s mouth. Even then the effect is temporary.

It is not entirely clear how people will implement these plans. However, ChristenUnie simply places a legal ban obligation on municipalities. Schools and doctors should be involved in the lifestyle. Obviously, they’ve been feeling a little bored lately. The CDA remains fairly realistic about the effectiveness of the neighborhood’s million-dollar aerobics clubs and cooking classes. But also in CDA’s dreamland, “resources” go to health care institutions, schools, and child care to encourage young people to eat healthy.

I think many directors will cry a little reading about these resources. Do you want to teach young people to eat healthy? Should we try to keep the school open five days a week? Otherwise, should we just teach them to read? But no, again, a great deal of money is being made for something for which there is no time, no people, and perhaps most importantly: it is not part of the core mission of the school.

There are still ten excellent problem analyzes to be discovered in electoral data where the proposed solution is unrealistic or has not been proven effective. School graduates, for example. They suffer from all kinds of problems, of which dropping out of school is actually one of the main ones only if you are convinced to the core that more education is always a good thing. But yes, coincidentally, most of the politicians in The Hague think so.

So this year’s election manifestos are full of more education. CDA wants more preschool education. GroenLinks-PvdA wants to extend pre-vocational secondary education to five years. As long as everyone is in line every so often, everything will be fine.

Even if that were the case, it was rarely convincingly demonstrated how these kinds of plans could be achieved. In the drowning education sector there is no one available to put young Dutch people into school early or to keep them longer.

It would be nice to have a little sense of reality to avoid disappointment. Electoral programs that are slightly more feasible than the ordinary children’s essay on citizenship education. Or maybe every school, day-care, or health-care facility should put a sign on its door: “Closed to your political hobbies, boutique themes, and good people.” For the foreseeable future, we only have time for our core tasks.

Rosanne Hertzberger He is a microbiologist.