A few weeks ago the Ministry of Education announced the university projects that have been distinguished as Campus of International Excellence in the 2010 call for proposals. These are eight projects involving 14 universities, which, in addition to this distinction, will receive financial aid amounting to some 32 million euros this year academic year. In addition, another six projects, involving another 14 universities, will receive a further 25 million euros in the category of Regional Excellence Campus . Finally, another seven projects, involving another fourteen universities, which were already selected in 2009, will receive a complementary financial aid of some 18 million.

In case anyone has missed it, let's summarize: 75 million for 40 universities, destined to promote a quality research and teaching in Spanish universities, attracting the best students and researchers, creating employment and development economic and promoting social cohesion. What more could you ask for! What better way to invest taxpayers' money than in Education, training talent and academic excellence!

Is there a "but"? Well, yes, it turns out that there is not a single private university on the shortlist. In one of the most frequently mentioned rankings on the quality of Spanish universities, seven private universities appear among the first forty. It is curious that none of them has managed to "sneak" into the 40 selected by the Ministry!

Could it be because none of them presented an project with sufficient quality, or could it be one more sample of the ideological bias of the Government towards the private Education ? Another recent development. A couple of weeks ago, the Equality Commission of the congress of Deputies approved a non-law proposal -with the only vote against of the group Popular- in which the Government was urged to elaborate and promote protocols of non-sexist games in the spaces of regulated and non-regulated games, in public and concerted Primary schools, in order to introduce the concept of equality and eliminate stereotypes that maintain the macho roles.

These two situations clearly exemplify two very different models of understanding the educational system. On the one hand, a model that understands Education as a public service, which is bothered by private initiative (if it could, it would not even give it water), because it understands that it is a subject that must be managed by the public and regulated to the extent of deciding what children can and cannot play in the playground. On the other hand, a model that understands Education as a public good that can also be managed by private initiative, in which the State must ensure quality, without curtailing the freedom of initiative, nor impose its ideological bias, nor discriminate based on the ownership of that teaching or because of legitimate educational options that do not coincide with their own.

When there are elections, we have the opportunity to choose a government that shapes a society as much in line as possible with our ideas. The Economics usually takes the lion's share of the voting decision. But a society is much more than Economics. If you care about model educational , think about it for a moment and keep it in mind when you vote. It really matters.