An association of Spanish education advocates will appeal to the European Union to prevent Spain’s socialist government from implementing an education law that will restrict the exercise of the rights of parents in deciding their children’s education.
The law, approved by the Spanish parliament December 23, 2020 prevents parents from choosing religious schools for their children.
Spain has a charter school program that allows private schools, most of which are Catholic, to receive significant financial resources from the government. About 50% of Spain’s students go to charter schools.
The new law prevents parents who live in a district with a public school to opt into a charter school for their children, a blow to both parental freedom and the ability of charter schools to survive financially.
Más Plurales, an organisation that that includes thousands of educators, parents, and students from charter schools in Spain, announced January 19 that “in the upcoming days we will appeal to the European Commission a lawsuit against the Spanish government due to the serious imminent risk of violation of the fundamental rights and freedoms recognised by the European Union that implies the approval and entry into force of the new law”.