The growth of privatisation affecting the Basque education system is being debated in different forums and media. In most cases, these discussions are carried out from the ideological perspective of each of those in their opinion, but the mechanisms that facilitate the privatization of the system or the maintenance of privileges with public money are not taken into account. The policies of clientelism between certain centers of private ownership and the PNV are very notorious. The passivity of the PSE, a member of the government of the PNV, on this issue is irritating, but not surprising. The irregularities and arbitrariness that are being carried out with public money when financing certain initiatives of private ownership have upset the role of our education system as a basic element of social cohesion. This is not the only cause of school segregation in our educational system, but it is one of the main causes. We will try to explain it with real examples.

The Administration establishes for each private centre an educational concert plan for a period of six years, and determines the number of classrooms available to each centre. In many cases, initial planning is exceeded in this six-year cycle, although there is sufficient supply at public centres and institutes in the area to meet this demand. Some political decisions are taken arbitrarily (as in the case of the Munabe College) and others irregularly, as in the case of the Ikastola Laskorain de Tolosa. In this case, the Education Delegation of Gipuzkoa produced a report in which it felt that it was not necessary for Laskorain to expand the number of classrooms in the baccalaureate: "Today it is understood that the four planned groups are sufficient, so there is no need to modify the planning". In addition, this private concerted ikastola did not have administrative authorization to plan the number of high school classrooms requested. But the PNV arrived and from the leadership of the schools in Lakua, on 8 March, gave permission to conclude this unauthorized room, which acts outside the current legal framework. As a result, Tolosa, adding up the public and concerted centers, has become 430 places for 307 students, which generates an unnecessary surplus for the public school. This practice is common and widespread throughout the CAPV.

Another clear example is what is happening in the first cycle of early childhood education. In Oyón, for example, there is a public Haurreskola offering 55 places for boys and girls up to two years old. There are currently 15 children enrolled. But at the same time, and 100 meters away, the Department of Education has donated about 70,000 euros annually in recent years to the private classrooms of the first cycle of child education in the private concerted center. In addition, children enrolled in private classrooms are guaranteed access to school at the centre itself and children enrolled in public children ' s schools participating in the admission process established by the Department of Education itself. The same occurs in all the neighborhoods and municipalities of the CAPV.

Many more mechanisms are put in place by the PNV and the PSE to improve the starting point for the children of families choosing certain concerted centres. In this sense, attempts to make these privileged situations financed with public money invisible are shameful. Interestingly, the intention to introduce these and other issues under the carpet does not come from the government's hand. Other agents, many of them progressive, prefer to look the other way, arguing the need to overcome the public-private dichotomy.

In any case, evidence shows that the educational policy of the PNV and the PSE, based on the guarantee of the "freedom of choice of center" for certain families, supposes reinforcing social segregation and without the need to increase educational spending. Duplication and oversupply of services imply less school segregation and social cohesion. For all these reasons, at STEILAS we demand that neoliberal educational policies, arbitrariness and irregularities that promote the privatization of the educational service be eliminated, that more be invested in the public network, that it be prioritized and that it be placed at the centre of the educational system, the only truly universal and cohesive network from the point of view of social justice.