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Eduardo Martínez Abascal, Professor, IESE, University of Navarra

Freedom of Education

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 08:51:16 +0000 Published in Expansion

Imagine you want to buy a car. Imagine also that the government tells you what car you have to buy, what make, color, and power. What would your reaction be? Outrage? Protest? Rebellion? Well, it depends.

If you live in Cuba, or any of the few remaining communist countries (there were many at one time), your reaction will be one of joy. You are one of the lucky few who have a car. Besides, you will never have experienced freedom of choice and, therefore, you will not miss it.

But if you live in a free, democratic and developed country, you will probably cry foul for not being able to buy the car you want. That's as far as we can go! And I'm sure you would be right. Now, I ask you: what do you value more, the quality of your car or your children's Education ?

The answer is obvious: my children's Education . So, why don't we allow the government to decide which is our car and decide the subject of Education for our children? The reality is that a vast majority of citizens in Spain cannot decide which high school they take their children to. The Government imposes it on them.

It has been proven that the most efficient system for the citizen to enjoy cheap and good quality goods and services is the free skill. Why is this system not applied to our children's Education ? It will be argued that it is convenient to provide social cohesion through public Education , and that this is already of high quality. So why do the children of many politicians go to private schools? Shouldn't they set an example and bear the burdens they impose on others first?

According to the Ministry of Education, the public expense per student in primary and secondary is 4,800 euros in a public high school and 2,100 euros in a private high school . Wouldn't it be more efficient, then, to encourage private schools? It will be argued: private Education is only for the rich. Negative. The poor also want to send their children to good schools... but they cannot. And they could if the government (in any of its formats) would increase the endowment per student, and let the parents decide.

Public schools? Yes. Private schools? Yes. And let them compete on equal terms. result A better level educational. At the end of the day, it seems to me that what the government is looking for is not a quality public teaching system. If that were the case, they would not be afraid of skill. The aim is to control the Education of future generations.