The Education and Science Workers' Union advocates the abolition of gymnasium schools in favour of comprehensive schools, arguing that, while gymnasium schools admit middle-class students of average ability, working-class students are admitted only if they are unusually academically able. The Union believes that gymnasium schools select not only for academic merit, but for manners, background and social class.
The Deutscher Lehrerverband (German Teachers' Union) supports Gymnasia; their chairman, Josef Kraus, has claimed that German gymnasia "ranked among the finest institutions in the world" and should not be abolished. Kraus also rejected claims that the German system was biased against working-class children, arguing that the German system should not be seen as inferior simply because its qualification system is structured differently from that of other countries: "in Finland or the USA nurses are college educated, yet in Germany they do not have to attend a gymnasium or a college. The Finnish worker's daughter who becomes a nurse is seen as upwardly mobile. The German nurse is just as qualified, but yet she is not seen as upwardly mobile".
The Left Party called the gymnasia "an outdated institution" and wants them to be abolished. According to "The Left Party", working-class children are as talented as middle-class children, yet not admitted for gymnasium. The party furthermore holds the opinion that the majority of Germans is opposed to gymnasia and wants them to be abolished. If gymnasia will not be abolished "The Left Party" is in favour of affirmative action.
The Social Democratic Party of Germany wants to abolish gymnasia in favour of comprehensive schools, but they have been criticised by the media after it turned out that SPD politicians such as Andrea Ypsilanti send their children to a fancy private gymnasium.
The Alliance '90/The Greens Party is in favour of abolishing gymnasia. Renate Künast has said that every child should have the possibility to realise his or her potential, but that the German class system was keeping them from doing so. "Students from poor backgrounds attend the Hauptschule, students from middle-class backgrounds the Realschule and students who come from a background of privilege the gymnasium. That's a caste-system"
According to The Christian Democratic Union parents should be able to choose from a variety of schools and gymnasia should be one of those. Ronald Pofalla said wanting to abolish gymnasia smacks of "egalitarism" and that those who want to do this overlook the fact that children have different talents and thus different needs. According to Annette Schavan a majority of Germans did not want gymnasia to be abolished.
The Free Democratic Party is in favour of the gymnasium. They said that parents should be able to choose from a number of schools and decide which one was right for their individual child. They also said it should be made easier for students from poor families to attend a private school, the state should pay for that.