A lot of the news is centered in Stockholm – ask anyone who lives outside of Stockholm. Also Brussels is a news hog, since the laws we live under here have to comply with laws created there. Today’s blog, though, goes up north to Kiruna, even as it also goes to the very heart of this coffee-loving nation.
First, some background. Schools around the country are going to have to make do with less money in the new budget year. Kiruna municipality is cutting the number of its student assistants from 75 to 25 as one of its cost-cutting measures, Aftonbladet reports. Then, one of it’s municipality workers posted on facebook: maybe spend the money we spend on coffee on student assistants instead? “Many people think offering a coffee is about the only thing the municipality does, and we need it. But we work here anyway so maybe we can afford to bring our own coffee” she said to Norrköping newspapers.
Kiruna spends just over a million kronor a year on coffee in its office machines. And it’s true that a million kronor would pay for a couple of student assistants for a year. But it’s not going to solve the budget problem, nor are municipality workers living high on the hog at the workplace. Coffee is likely the one perk they have, and no one needs coffee like a teacher. Making coffee a scapegoat for budget problems isn’t the way to go.