Public or state-subsidized school: what have families asked for the next school year?

BarcelonaAt the beginning of March, around 100,000 families throughout Catalonia were pending a procedure: deciding which school or institute they would opt for their children to start a new educational stage. The deadline for this process opened on March 4 for 3-year-olds (I3), and on March 6 for 1st year of ESO, just three weeks after the first general strike of the year in the Catalan public education sector. A strike that four out of ten teachers supported according to the Government's assessment, 85% according to the convening unions. The coincidence between the crisis in the education sector and the opening of school pre-registrations could have led to public schools being disadvantaged in the choice, but the data does not show a negative impact, quite the contrary.

Families had to decide between a public or a state-subsidized school at a time when public school teachers had already called two major demonstrations on November 15 and January 24 and a general strike with slogans like "we educate the future with resources from the past" to denounce the lack of staff in public education classrooms – and to demand a pay rise–. On the same day that pre-registrations opened, USTEC handed over 50,000 signatures to Parliament to demand the dignification of the profession. In addition, during the two weeks in which pre-registration procedures could be carried out, the failed negotiation between the Government and the majority of sector unions and the call for a new wave of mobilizations for the week of March 16 to 20 took place.

Given this scenario, there was a possibility that more families would prioritize state-subsidized schools over public ones surrounded by crisis when choosing. But this has not been the case. According to data accessed by ARA, in the pre-registrations for the next academic year, the percentage of families who have requested to enter a public school or institute as their first choice has increased very slightly.

"It was not a matter that concerned us because the teachers' strike has been widely embraced by families. We do not believe there is a relationship between the strike and the choice that families may make," admits Lidón Gasull, director of AFFAC, which brings together the majority of AFA in Catalonia. In fact, Gasull assures that the strike "will have a positive impact on educational centers because from now on resources will be obtained".

If we focus on I3, for this academic year 67.05% of families requested to enroll in a public school as their first choice, a proportion that has grown by almost one point (67.92%) in the pre-registrations for the next academic year. A similar situation has been experienced in the choice to start the secondary education stage. This academic year, 87.48% of families put a public institute as their first choice in the pre-registration, and for the next academic year, 87.54% of families have requested it.

However, although in Catalonia as a whole the majority of families prioritize public education, the proportion between those who request public or subsidized centers varies greatly depending on the territory and the educational stage. Furthermore, it should be taken into account that after four years of decline, requests to enter a subsidized school in the early childhood stage have risen for three consecutive years.

In the case of I3 pre-registrations, the difference between one territorial service and another can reach 35 points: the territories with the highest percentage of families requesting a public center as a first option are Terres de l'Ebre (85.5%), Alt Pirineu (83.6%) and Girona (81.2%); while the territories with less preference for public ones are Barcelona (50.2%), Barcelonès (56.9%) and Vallès Occidental (60.6%).

In the case of entry into ESO, the proportion of families trying to enter a public high school skyrockets. In all territorial services (12), this proportion is over 70%. In most territories, nine out of ten families have requested that their child enter a public high school next academic year. Again, as was already the case with entry into school at I3, the areas with the lowest percentage of first-choice public school applications are Barcelona (71.6%), Barcelonès (83.3%), and Vallès Occidental (85.8%). However, in this difference between territories, supply must be taken into account: for example, there are many fewer subsidized schools in Alt Pirineu than in the municipalities of the metropolitan area of Barcelona.

Not only out of militancy

The head of anti-school segregation policies at Equitat.org, Maria Segurola, warns that the weight of a family's "militancy" for one model or another when choosing a public or subsidized school is usually low. "Families who can are very strategic and make their preference list thinking about where they have a chance of getting in, and they might put a public school as their first choice and a subsidized one as their second because both are close to them," she exemplifies.

In this regard, the study Families facing school choice –published in 2010 by the Bofill Foundation– indicates that, in the case of families entering I3, the factors that weigh most heavily are proximity and the educational project. Specifically, 62% of families consider the school's proximity to their home or work as one of the priority factors in choosing a school. 44.3% consider the educational project; 28% the presence of siblings at the school; 25% the facilities and equipment, 22.4% the possibility of continuing secondary education at the same school, and 21% the fact that the school is publicly owned (21.1%).

On the other hand, one of the key points is the offering, as obviously, if families know there isn't one, they won't try to get into one school or another. This is one of the aspects that explains why in the case of ESO, applications to enter a public school skyrocket compared to I3. "In the transition to secondary school, there are very few places in subsidized schools because they usually move up entire year groups, and therefore, the majority are automatically filled," explains Segurola. Furthermore, in the transition from primary to secondary, it must also be considered that many schools already have some associated high schools – both public and subsidized – and it is most natural for the majority of students in a group to end up in those schools.

The problem of oversupply

Finally, another of the factors that condition the choice is the problem of oversupply. In fact, in these pre-registrations at Barcelona schools, there are as many empty places as during the pandemic. To manage oversupply, lines must be closed, and the director of AFFAC warns that the "preventive" closure of public school lines before pre-registration – in the case of subsidized schools, a group closes or not after applications – harms public schools. "This year, adjustments have already been made in public schools, with a higher proportion than in subsidized schools, and we have not seen that the management of the demographic decline has been transferred to the resolution of contracts, which is what should have been done," criticizes Gasull.