The 2025/2026 Teacher Charter starts today. The number of beneficiaries expands but the amount decreases, the political conflict ignites.
Starting today it is available to over one million teachers Teacher Card 2025/2026the bonus designed for support the training and professional development of Italian teaching staff.
The dedicated platform (accessible via Spid or Cie credentials on the cartadeldocente.editore.it portal) opened its doors on 9 March 2026, a few months later than the ordinary calendar, postponement due to the need to reorganize the measure following the expansion of the number of beneficiaries.
The audience of recipients has expanded, the compensation has decreased
The main innovation of this edition concerns the recipients. For the first time, in fact, the Charter is extended also to teachers with an annual substitution contract on a vacant position until August 31st, to those with temporary substitution until the end of teaching activities on June 30th and to the educational staff of boarding schools and boarding schools.
An audience that thus rises to over one million teachers, approximately 200 thousand more than last school year, with a overall increase of 253 thousand units compared to the original system of the measure.
Alongside the broadening of the base, however, there is a change in the amount. In fact, the bonus drops from 500 to 383 euros. And it is precisely on this point that the political conflict has ignited.
Renzi on the attack
It was he who fired the first shot Matteo Renzithe leader of Italia Viva, as well as the founding father of the Teacher Card, who attacked the government over the weekend: “Ten years ago my Government established the teacher’s card with 500 euros for each teacher”, he wrote on
Renzi then widened the attack, citing the expenses that in his opinion the government would have left unchanged or even increased: “Giorgia Meloni increases Chigi’s consultancy, the salaries of Roman managers, the hiring of friends and cronies. But she cuts the teacher’s paper, cuts the professors”.
Valditara’s reply
The response of the Minister of Education and Merit, Giuseppe Valditarait arrived quickly. In an official note from the ministry, the minister reversed the perspective, recalling that the original 2015 measure had, in fact, excluded all temporary teachers from the Charter.
“When the Renzi government adopted the teacher charter, they were all temporary teachers were unjustifiably excluded“, we read in the press release. A gap that in the following years had produced a judicial dispute: starting from 2021, some sentences had also recognized substitute teachers the right to the benefit, without however any government having ever proceeded to formally implement this expansion on an administrative and financial level.
Valditara underlined that the government has filled this gapextending the Charter to 253 thousand temporary teachers who until then had not received the bonus.
On the resources front, the minister then specified that in addition to the 400 million allocated to the individual card, 281 million euros of European funds are added, allocated directly to schools to strengthen the training purposes of the measure and allow the purchase of hardware, software, tablets and books to be assigned on loan for use to school staff, including ATA staff.
Frassinetti: “More fair and effective measure”
To complete the majority front, the Undersecretary for Education and Merit intervened, Paola Frassinettiwho firmly defended the government’s actions by rejecting the opposition’s accusations.
“The controversies over the teacher’s charter are completely instrumental,” declared the undersecretary. “This government has not cut resources, but has made the measure more fair and effective, extending it for the first time to over 250 thousand temporary teachers who had been excluded for years”.
On the additional resources front, the undersecretary confirmed the 281 million euros of European funds planned to support training and teaching tools, presenting them as a qualifying element of the intervention.
“This is an intervention that broadens the number of beneficiaries, enhances training resources and strengthens support for school staff,” concluded Frassinetti, claiming the coherence of the government’s choice with the declared objective of concretely enhancing the work of those who work daily in Italian schools.
