The conciliation law that the PP has defended in recent weeks has had – again, as is the case with almost everything that Feijóo proposes – a pilot experience in Galicia. This recently launched course is the third in which education from 0 to 3 years is free in the community, which, however, has not meant a commitment to the creation of public squares. Of the more than 32,000 children enrolled in the community, a third are in the regional network, 7,000 in municipal nursery schools and more than 13,000 in private schools. The Xunta closed the 23/24 period by approving, at the end of June, a game of more than 45 million euros for private daycares or social initiatives aimed at continuing to finance a measure that “will surely last forever”, according to President Alfonso Wheel.
The popular bill includes the implementation of free provision in its second additional provision: “To guarantee all families support for conciliation needs and reduce inequalities in a key stage for childhood and its future development, the Government will approve, within six months, a Plan to extend the first cycle of free preschool education throughout Spain, which will be co-financed 50% between the State and the Autonomous Communities. This expansion will be gradual, adapting to the models implemented in each territory, and direct aid can be put in place for families who choose not to send their children to school in this age group.
This “progressive expansion” proposed by the popular text also worked in Galicia. The process began during the 19/20 school year, which was already free for families with two or more children. In 22/23 – with Feijóo in Madrid after announcing the measure and Rueda at the head of the Xunta – it was extended to one hundred percent of the student body.
The next course will be the first to equalize access conditions. Private centers will therefore have to apply the same preference criteria as public centers: priority to families with brothers and sisters in the same school, to the children of center workers and to those of families in which both parents work or the only parent. . if it is a single-parent family. However, income will not be taken into account.
La Xunta boasts of its “leadership” in matters of schooling at these levels. Last year’s rate, 56.4%, exceeds the state average by ten points, although it is only a tenth higher than that of the second autonomous region, Euskadi. Since the start of the free procedure, this ratio has increased by nine points and could continue to increase. While waiting to close this year’s, social policy sources estimate that it will be around 60%.
Criticism of municipal councils
If the PP bill speaks of a cost shared between the State and the autonomous communities, the Galician model also co-finances part of the places: the more than 7,000 municipal nursery schools. And, according to the Galician Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEGAMP), this is clearly insufficient.
In Galicia, there are a total of more than 550 nursery schools for these 32,000 students. In addition to the 175 which depend directly on the regional administration, 140 (7,293 places) are municipal – including childcare points – and 238 private, with 13,409 registered. The free service costs Xunta 105 million this year, all coming from its own funds. “The central government does not contribute a cent”, they emphasize from Politique Sociale, as if they remembered the co-financing proposed by the popular law.
The 45.7 million approved in June – 4.2 million more than last year – to cover the costs of private and social initiative schools amounts to 338 euros per student per month. Compared to this, with just over half of registrations, municipal nurseries receive ten times less for the same concept: a subsidy of 4.6 million – the same as during the 23/24 period – to which they still add 3, 1 for maintenance expenses. , an element that does not increase either.
Before free courses, the cost for families for each student enrolled in one of these centers varied, depending on income, from zero to 169 euros per month. And this is what the Xunta took into account for the distribution of funds.
According to the study carried out by FEGAMP, the average subsidy per student from the Xunta to private nurseries amounts to 309.90 euros; For municipal ones – adding schooling and maintenance – it’s only 92.90. For Galician municipalities, keeping their nursery schools together costs more than 25 million euros per year. The 7.7 contributed by the community barely covers a third of the cost of a service which, according to them, does not correspond to them either, since it is a regional responsibility.
This is why, after having verified the freezing of aid, the executive committee of the FEGAMP demanded at the end of July that the Social Policy assume “total free” nursery schools and municipal crèches, it being understood that “the allocation of this aid » the autonomous authority must be accompanied by the economic means necessary for its proper exercise.
