Article 27 of the Constitution is quite explicit. In its first and fifth points, the right of all citizens "to education" is protected, "freedom of education" is recognized and it is specified that it is the public powers that "guarantee" those rights. The third point states: "The public authorities guarantee the right that assists parents so that their children receive religious and moral training that is in accordance with their own convictions." That is, the legislator establishes a link between the right to freedom of education and that which parents have to choose the type of education they prefer for their children. To unlink both rights - as the Minister of Education and government spokesman made Thursday in a late statement made in an inappropriate forum, and reiterated again after the Council of Ministers - responds to a clear intention to attack, for ideological reasons , concerted education And specifically the religious.

Because in addition, Isabel Celaá ignored at least three judgments of the Constitutional Court that expressly establish this link and specify it in the right to the choice of center by families . It is obvious that the minister did not speak to citizens or parents' associations, but to Unidos Podemos, the new preferred partners of Pedro Sánchez, defenders of the single school, that is, exclusively public. That is why it is likely that many PSOE voters felt surprised by this uncompromising attitude of the minister , as previous socialist governments promoted the consolidation of concerted education. Among other reasons, because it is the preferred solution for many families, by riding between a public education - unfortunately quite degraded in many centers - and a private one that only families with large incomes can afford.

The message of the Minister of Education is quite clear. The Government is willing to reduce the number of centers agreed if the educational reform is ratified, pending since last February, when the Council of Ministers approved the amendment of the Lomce, the so-called Organic Law of Education (LOE), also known as Celaá Law . It included a new wording of article 109.2, so that administrations would not have to take into account "social demand" when planning the educational offer. And there are already several autonomous communities governed by the PSOE, such as Valenciana or Aragón, who have shown their willingness to close concerted centers. It is unacceptable that the Government enables a tool that limits the creation of new concerted units, depriving numerous families of that right, to meet the demands of the extreme left, with which they intend to govern.

In the controversy, finally, there is no other one of the usual ingredients in the speech of United We can: his anticlerical obsession . It is no accident that Celaá initiated the controversy - to which yesterday, in an act of cynicism he described as "exaggerated" - within the framework of the Congress of Catholic Schools , before more than 2,000 representatives of this teaching modality. The Government is obliged to rectify and not tortiously interpret both the judgments of the TC and the demands of the families.

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