Jozef Marie Mathias "Jo" Ritzen (born 3 October 1945) is a retired Dutch politician of the Labour Party (PvdA) and economist.
Ritzen worked as researcher at the Delft Institute of Technology from July 1969 until June 1972 and at the Erasmus University Rotterdam from June 1972 until July 1976. Ritzen worked as a civil engineering consultant in Bangladesh from August 1976 until April 1978 and as a visiting professor of Education economics at the University of California, Berkeley from September 1978 until May 1979. Ritzen worked as an associate professor of Public economics at the Radboud University Nijmegen from May 1978 until January 1981 and a professor of Education economics at the Erasmus University Rotterdam from January 1981 until September 1982. Ritzen worked as a political consultant for the Labour Party from September 1982 until November 1989 and also as science advisor for the Leader of the Labour Party and Parliamentary leader of the Labour Party in the House of Representatives Joop den Uyl from September 1982 until July 1986. Ritzen also worked as a distinguished visiting professor at the Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs of the University of Wisconsin-Madison from February 1988 until November 1989. After the election of 1989 Ritzen was appointed as Minister of Education and Sciences in the Cabinet Lubbers III, taking office on 7 November 1989. In January 1994 Ritzen announced that he would not stand for the election of 1994. Rtizen served as acting Minister of Welfare, Health and Culture following the resignation Hedy d'Ancona dual serving in both positions from 16 July 1994. Following the cabinet formation of 1994 formateur Wim Kok approached incumbent State Secretary for Education and Sciences Job Cohen for the post of Minister of Education and Sciences in the new cabinet but Cohen per his own request asked not to be considered for a cabinet post as his wife was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Kok subsequently approached Ritzen to continued in the post as the newly renamed Minister of Education, Culture and Science in the Cabinet Kok I, taking office on 22 August 1994. In December 1997 Ritzen announced his retirement from national politics and that he wouldn't stand for the election of 1998, the Cabinet Kok I was replaced by the Cabinet Kok II on 3 August 1998.
Biography
Education and academic career
Ritzen started in 1963 at Bernardinus College in Heerlen. In 1970 he obtained an engineer's degree in physics from the Institute of Technology. He received his PhD degree in 1976 from the Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam with the thesis "Education, economic growth, and income inequality metrics". The thesis received the Winkler Prins Prize as the best economics dissertation in the period 1975–1978.
Before entering politics, Ritzen worked in a variety of jobs: as a project consultant in former East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), as a lecturer in the economics of education at the University of California, Berkeley, at the Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen (now Radboud University), and as a full professor in the economics of education at the Erasmus Universiteit from 1981 to 1982. In 1988-1989 he was a visiting distinguished professor at the Robert M. La Follette Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the United States. He has written or co-authored eleven books. Many articles written or co-authored by him are published in the fields of education, economics, public finance and development economics.
Politics
In 1989 he became Minister of Education and Sciences in the third Lubbers Cabinet (Christian Democrats-Social Democrats, Lubbers-Kok). In the same cabinet he was Minister of Welfare, Health, and Culture (including Sports) for three months in 1994. That same year, with the installation of the cabinet Kok 1 (Liberals, Social Liberals and Social Democrats), he became Minister of Education, Culture, and Sciences until 1998.
As a minister he introduced the OV-studentenkaart in 1990, a card giving free public transportation to students, and later the Prestatiebeurs, a new form of student financing where student grants would only be available for those who completed their studies. The LSVb (one of the major student unions) resisted both initiatives.