According to the union, the government maintains the same fiscal structure as it has done so far and cannot: "Taxes have not been raised on higher incomes (no more than EUR 1.5 billion), the necessary steps have not been taken in the fight against tax fraud (EUR 540 million) and the money from UPN governments has not been recovered from private banks (EUR 1.060 million)."

As you have explained, Navarre is one of the European territories with the least GDP for education. In the 2010 budgets, the expenditure on education amounted to 14.97%. At present, this figure is only 16.85%, so in a decade of spending 3.66% of GDP on education, only 3.9% of GDP has been spent on current budgets.

The study details the need to include also the price increase in recent years: “This growth can be understood as a commitment to public education, but we have to bear in mind that since then the CPI has grown by 12.3% and the number of students by 10.11%. With these numbers, we can say that the investment in education in Navarra in the last 10 years, far from growing, has decreased by 1%. Although this government says that it wants to reach 5% of the GDP for education as a commitment to its fellow investiture, the weight of the line for education has only increased by 0.25%, although again and again we are told that these budgets are social."

The union has also denounced the treatment of concerted education by the government: “Instead of reviewing the concerts of private schools, the government has increased the provision for concerted education companies by almost EUR 10 million, earmarking a total of EUR 149 million.”

"We need a funding law"

Two years ago, all the trade unions presented to the political parties and to the Education Commission of the Foral Parliament a proposal for a Law on the Financing of Public Education to ensure that education is always earmarked 6% of GDP, as recommended by UNESCO. “In this way, public education would not be subject to economic avatars or government policies in turn. To invest 6% of GDP for the education we ask in Navarre would require more than EUR 1.1 billion, so what is missing is an effort of EUR 300 million.”

Steilas concludes by saying that “with this measure and betting on a fiscal structure in the line of advanced states and setting aside white elephants like the TAV”, it would be possible to have a quality education “public and everyone; meanwhile, it will not even have for the cistern”.

You can read the full document in the ARGIA Agents Square.