There are more than eight million children enrolled in school in Spain. Of these, 25.4 % are enrolled in a publicly funded private school. In other words, one out of every four Spanish students is being educated in a subsidized center. If we then add the teaching and non-teaching staff and the positive impact they have on their families, we can say that more than two million people benefit directly or indirectly from this system.
However, this resource, which has proven to be so advantageous and effective over the thirty years it has been in place, is increasingly subject to various contingencies, strongly marked by the geographical area in which it is developed. Thus, while in communities such as the Basque Country, Navarre or the Community of Madrid, subsidized schools enjoy considerable freedom of action and planning, in other latitudes, such as Andalusia, they are subject to the strict control and omnipresent vigilance of the autonomous administration.
Although different causes and motives can be analyzed, perhaps the origin of them is the concept, erroneous or correct, that the different regional governments handle, which goes deep into the social debate itself. Because not all social sectors have assimilated what is and what is the meaning of the presence of subsidized education in our educational system.
The fact is that it does not fit within the right to education, which is enshrined in Article 27 of the Spanish Constitution. Not because the subsidized school does not participate and contribute to effectively carry it out, but because its ultimate foundation is none other than to comply with the constitutional recognition of freedom of education, and "to guarantee the right of parents to ensure that their children receive the religious and moral training that is in accordance with their own convictions.". Thus, subsidized education is not designed to be a subsidiary element of public initiative education, and to respond to the demand that the latter is not able to assume. The relationship between the two must always and everywhere be one of complementarity.
The public support of these centers, therefore, will ensure that all parents who want a particular education for their children enjoy their right to choose under equal conditions, beyond economic conditioning factors. Thus, to speak of the public school as an exclusive and priority model, according to the terms used by certain sectors, parties and platforms, is clearly an attack on the freedom of education, since it tacitly proposes the eradication of the basic principle of choice, that is, the pre-existence of different options to choose from.
Although this necessary complementarity is the theory or the ideal, there are places where, however, it is systematically trampled upon. In Andalusia, as a prime example, there is constant marginalization and siege around the subsidized centers, which are gradually being drowned through the elimination of lines, in favor of public centers, despite the fact that the families of the students continue to opt massively for enrolling their children in the former. In view of this fact, the subsidized education sector is requesting, time and time again, without obtaining a favorable response, that the real demand of parents be taken into account, and that their requests be attended to in a real and effective way.
The struggle to maintain its ideology
Another battlefield in which certain subsidized schools have had to fight it out has been in the field of differentiated education. In 2009, the Andalusian administration set the following condition sine qua non for the maintenance of the educational agreement of ten centers for the admission of students of both sexes. Faced with this interference, on which negotiations were attempted without reaching any agreement, the Andalusian Federation of Private Education Centers, which includes both privately and publicly funded centers, filed a contentious-administrative appeal for the annulment of the orders issued, considering them to be illegal and unfair. Although the High Court of Justice of Andalusia ruled in their favor, the situation of uncertainty generated was clearly unacceptable and inappropriate within the framework of the desirable and convenient functioning of a State governed by the rule of law.
In this regard, and working to prevent similar scenarios, the current education law, the LOMCE, is concise, stating that "the admission of male and female pupils or the organization of education on the basis of gender does not constitute discrimination". and that "in no case shall the choice of gender-differentiated education imply for families, students and corresponding centers a less favorable treatment, nor a disadvantage, when signing agreements with educational administrations or in any other aspect"..
This legislative framework, in principle, should be sufficient to contain the temptation of the Administration to impose the ideological postulates of the political groups that support it. However, for this to be effective, the basic foundation would be the correct translation of national regulations into the different autonomous community systems. This is an initial point which, in the light of daily practice, has not yet been cemented.
An ambiguous legislative situation
The LOMCE has certainly not been implemented throughout the national territory, neither at the same time, nor with the same scope. In the case of Andalusia, the corresponding Education Law, which should have adapted the LOMCE to the regional organization, has never arrived. Instead, decrees and specific instructions have been issued which not only distort the purpose of the national law, but also create a new system of education for the region. a general climate of lack of coordination and imprecision that hinders the planning of the centers.
This continued improvisation has led, in the current 2015-2016 academic year, to the paradoxical circumstance that certain subjects have begun to be taught without the corresponding textbooks, because the vagueness of the indications received is not enough, logically, to extract a coherent curriculum.
The educational sphere is thus experiencing a permanent sense of instability which, as is recognized by the vast majority of authorities, must be channeled within logic, common sense and usefulness as soon as possible.
Inadequate and unequal funding
A separate chapter would be the financing of subsidized centers which, although there are also significant differences between Autonomous Communities, in many cases do not cover real costs, in addition to presenting a notorious difference with public education. In fact, the average in Spain places the investment per student in subsidized education at around 3,000 euros, compared to 5,700 euros in public education. According to data presented at the 42nd National Congress of Private Education, this represents a difference of 48.12 % in the national total. By communities, the Community of Madrid, the Community of Valencia and Andalusia lead the difference between public and subsidized education, with a 53.31 %, 53.77 % and 26.90 % difference, respectively. The smallest difference is in the Basque Country, with 36.85 %; in Asturias, with 37.04 %, and in La Rioja and Navarra, both located around 40 %.
Thus, in many cases, the economic viability of these centers is saved by the existence of many religious teachers, whose low salaries are fully paid into the coffers of the center, and help to balance the accounts. through reinvestment.
The urgency of an educational pact
Due to all these aspects, the concerted education sector asks, as the best way to overcome all these obstacles and variables, to reach as soon as possible a necessary educational pact, which would set specific guidelines, and which would serve as an umbrella in the face of the harassing attitude they are experiencing in many parts of the national geography. It is true that the public discourse of many political parties, openly excluding, disqualifies them for the opening of a subsequent negotiation, although the hope always remains alive that, beyond the banner, the public authorities, when the time comes, will be far-sighted, have the common sense and sufficient will to tackle a problem whose solution would undoubtedly benefit the improvement of the Spanish educational system as a whole, and the collective work for the common good.
