From the 2026 budget audit
A centralised talent-spotting grant that could be done by schools and foundations instead.
8.6 milliárd Ft for a national grant programme identifying and supporting talented young people — broadly distributed, but still the state deciding which talent-development activities deserve priority.
Roughly 2,146 Ft per taxpayer per year — 8.6 milliárd Ft disbursed through competitive applications that a school-level or philanthropic scholarship fund could replace.
What you see — and what you don't
The seen: talented young Hungarians receiving grants for music, sport, science, and other pursuits. The unseen: the scholarship foundations, community funds, and school-level excellence programmes that would emerge if the state were not the central grant-setter — and the families funding the Tehetség competitions through their taxes while wealthier, better-connected households capture more of the grants.
Objection
"Hungary needs to retain talented young people — a national talent programme helps keep them here."
Answer
Brain drain is real, and supporting talent is worthwhile. But the remedy for brain drain is the wage environment that skilled workers face — driven by the broader reform package — not a central grant pool. A nominal freeze holds the programme flat while the longer-term direction points toward school-level and philanthropic talent funding.
Share if you think fixing brain drain requires higher wages, not more grant competitions.
The analyst's verdict
National Talent Programme
Rationale
A grant programme for the identification and support of talented young people, disbursed through competitive application. The knowledge problem applies — there is no neutral state answer to which talent-development activities deserve support — and on the strict frame a discretionary grant pool of this kind is a candidate for reduction. But it is broadly distributed across schools, youth organisations, and individual applicants rather than concentrated on a narrow constituency, and abrupt removal would disrupt in-flight multi-year support arrangements for individual young people. A nominal freeze is the defensible posture: hold the line flat, accept real-terms erosion, and pair it with the broader recommendation that talent-development support is exactly the activity that scholarship funds, foundations, and school-level budgets can finance without a central discretionary pool.
Transition mechanism
Hold the 8,585.0 millió Ft nominal; review against a longer-term move toward school-level and philanthropic talent funding.
Affected groups
Participating young people and youth organisations.
Free Society Institute
Support independent analysis
Our research is free, open, and unsponsored. If you find it valuable, help us keep it that way.