The employers and the Church of the concerted schools in the lower Ebro area have been alarmed. They know, however, that the LOMCE granted them excessive privileges, that the expansion of the liberal educational model after the Franco regime gives them great support and that LOMLOE only confirms that strong foundation. Almost four decades after the LODE’s approval, we can conclude that pacts policy has failed. Private centers have no place in the construction of a more balanced society, do not serve to strengthen social cohesion and refuse to guarantee equal opportunities in the recognition of students.

The patrons of the Ebro and the Church, on the contrary, are quiet, swimming in prosperity, as their exclusionary projects are firm. The PSOE (PSE and PSN), Eusko Alkartasuna and the PNV have been built over decades. This has been confirmed by the Directors of Education and the Presidents of the CAV and Navarra. In this way, the Abertzale left has also been a fine companion, which has led to the symbiosis between private schools.

Everyone is in favour of public school, but also private school. Each with his own reading; making impossible balances in the case of the PSOE and EH Bildu, and in the case of the Basque Country, defending private education, in the case of the PNV, supporting these centers that separate boys and girls by sex. Beyond the “personality” of each, the basis of coexistence between all private owned centers is healthy: individual rights have no limits, even if they are to the detriment of society. That is the policy of universal consultation of those who have managed our education system for decades.

Any democratic State must establish the necessary mechanisms to ensure that guarantees of individual rights that may be legitimate do not cause social dysfunctions or harm society as a whole. Because society as a whole also owns their rights. This idea is the one that has not yet been internalised by political parties and many educational actors. With LOMLOE, the liberal educational model is also strengthened, as individual rights prevail over the rights of society as a whole to the detriment of the latter. Should we be content with removing some of the privileges laid down by the LOMCE? Do private and public centres have to have the same treatment? STEILAS considers that the Public School should be a school for all citizens. This will ensure the reconciliation of individual and collective rights. On this idea, broad consensus has been built around the education of the most advanced countries.

Pasi Sahlberg, one of the founders of political education reforms in Finland in the 1990s, wrote in his book Finish Lessons: "Finnish people have a deep sense of shared responsibility. In addition to the importance of one's own life, the well-being of others is fundamental". Finland, by major agreements, decided to abandon private education and, therefore, the differences between the citizens of Finland were narrowing.

Finally, we would like to remind those who defend a liberal educational model of the words of Joseba Sarrionandia:

"Our rights don't start where everyone else's rights are exhausted.

Ours start where the rights of others begin.

And where our rights start, everybody else's rights start."

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Nagore Iturrioz

Aitor Idigoras

Araceli Montes Calvo

Ana Pérez Pérez