Next week, schools and high schools will reopen their doors. Thousands of children and adolescents will reunite with their classmates, meet the education professionals who will accompany them every day, and resume a routine that is much more than going to class: it is learning, growing, socializing, and finding a space of protection and opportunities.And like every year, we return to talk about the cost of materials, whether there will be enough teaching staff, the available public places, the school canteen, and the conditions of the educational centers. This year, in addition, we are talking about mobilizations. And also about what will happen with the field trips that many centers will stop doing.But it is not enough to take inventory of shortcomings every month of September. It is necessary to ask oneself what Catalan public education really needs. The problems that we will face again this September are not new, they are not unforeseen, and they are not solved with patches. They are the result of political decisions accumulated year after year.Public education does not need gestures. It needs a clear, sustained, and honest political commitment. And this commitment begins with how we plan the educational offer. It is necessary to guarantee a sufficient public network in each territory, for all children and adolescents, and to strengthen it instead of weakening it. Year after year, groups are closed in public schools, and, paradoxically, educational grants that do not respond to the country's real educational needs are maintained, or even expanded.And it also involves a matter that can no longer be postponed: the free nature of public education. It is not normal, nor has it ever been, for families to have to bear costs linked to schooling. Every euro that a family pays to educate their son or daughter in the public system is one more inequality that the system tolerates. Access to quality public education cannot depend on the income of each household.This issue goes beyond the expenses strictly linked to what happens inside the classroom. Let us think, for example, about the school canteen, which should be free and universal and form part of an educational policy that guarantees equity; or about the outings and activities that schools incorporate into their educational project, and which currently can depend on financial contributions from families or on the availability of professionals to make them possible depending on the school.

I am about to return to the school corridors, to meet again with my colleagues, to think systematically (if possible, together) about how to organize a new school year. Having temporarily set aside some of the tensions from the past year, we will need to remind each other that we are professionals in the service of a right: to make it possible for all children and adolescents to access the same educational opportunities. We cannot forget that we are not simply hired hands to do a job; we are teachers in a public service — the school — that guarantees childhoods.

After the extraordinary expenses of the holidays, many families have to face a new impact on their domestic economy: the return to school. Different studies by major consumer organizations place this impact at a minimum of 500 euros per child, although with many differences depending on the community they are in and also on the type of school the children attend. Private schools can triple the cost of public ones.

Returning to school represents a very high expense for many families, more than 422 euros on average. For the entire year, this is more than 2,000 euros in private schools, which is reduced by half in public schools, according to the Organization of Consumers and Users (OCU). However, some of these costs can be deducted from the personal income tax return (IRPF) in the regional bracket. Catalonia, the community to which the school exists a school voucher for each of the 795,000 primary and secondary school studentsOf the fifteen autonomous communities with a common system, it offers the fewest tax benefits of this type. The only one related to education concerns higher education, as it can be applied to loans to finance master's or doctoral degrees. 100% of the interest associated with these loans is repaid.

The return to school can show symptoms that may lead children to think they have eye problems, for example, when looking at the blackboard, reading books, or even playing. For this reason, pediatric ophthalmology experts at theIMO Grup Miranza, a leading ophthalmology clinic in Barcelona, ​​recommends checking children's eye health from birth and annually from the age of three or four. It's more convenient to time an eye health assessment at the start of the school year to ensure children don't have vision problems that could hinder their learning.