Toulouse: parents denounce the increase in the prices of municipal theater courses
The city of Toulouse has decided to modify the offer of theater courses in its cultural centers. With the key, higher prices for certain courses. Parents are unhappy.
What happens in the cultural centers of the city of Toulouse? Has the town hall lowered subsidies for certain activities, such as the theatre? This is what parents of students and teachers denounce in an online petition, entitled “Against the privatization of theater lessons in Toulouse”.
Launched 5 months ago, it collected more than 1,800 signatures. According to the petitioners, the town hall of Toulouse and the DASC (Direction de l’Animation Socioculturelle) have decided to no longer support the theater course of the cultural centers of Toulouse. Why ?
“€300 compared to €100 before”
“According to the town hall and the DASC, the inhabitants of Toulouse required by the theater can afford private lessons, without needing municipal assistance,” explains Aurelle, who launched the online petition.
“From now on, to do theatre, I have to pay a sum of 300 euros against 100 euros previously. I no longer have the means and my daughter therefore gives up the theater reluctantly”, testifies Anne, another mother.
“The town hall withdraws the right to do theater for the most disadvantaged”
“It is important to remind our mayor and the DASC that, no, not everyone can afford to pay for a year of theater lessons between 500 and 600 euros. By taking this measure, the town hall and the retired DASC the right to perform theater for children, adolescents and adults from the most disadvantaged backgrounds, ”adds the application.
“Is it useful to remember that many of them have been able, thanks to the theatre, to learn, among other things, to surpass themselves, to fight their shyness, to build their self-confidence, to express themselves publicly, to create something in common within a group? These skills, as useful as they are beneficial, should not be reserved for an elite. »
“The speakers who were paid by the town hall will continue their courses”, answers the town hall
At the town hall, the deputy mayor in charge of socio-cultural action explains that indeed, the offer of theater courses will be evaluated next year, in the cultural centers, properties of the town hall.
“We revealed that the associative offer of theater courses was significant in number and interesting, apart from the courses apparently presented by speakers from the town hall, explains Valérie Jacquet-Violleau. We will continue to offer slots and make premises available to theater speakers, but we have asked them to form an association. For the sake of fairness towards other associations, which rent premises from the town hall, and which are of course offered in the brochures of our cultural and entertainment centres”.
“Families will be accompanied”
The rates will be higher for these suggested courses, the elected official agrees, but she rejects the term “privatization”. “Twenty-five families wrote to us to express their grievances, out of the 6,000 who benefit from the activities of the cultural centres. They have all received an individualized response, and we support them, for children who absolutely wish to continue the theater”.