"This closure will be the best gift I can offer my child"
The public school "Arcipreste de Hita" ((the name of a fourteenth-century Spanish writer author of the Book of Good Love) is locates in Fuenlabrada, a town of 200,000 inhabitants in the south of the city of Madrid. Located in the barrio de la Serna is the only public school in a district where four private schools exist.
This school year the Department of Education decided to eliminate one of the two classrooms for children three years because of low demand. However, the requests of families rose to 44 places, allowing open the second classroom. Only 25 students were admitted (by the way, the ratios in early childhood education are extremely high and include the presence of children with special needs with almost no support). Even when there are charter schools with lower demand and the choice of families is respected. In the medium term, the loss of this classroom threatens the continuity of the school
The refusal of the education authorities to open a second classroom was answered by the closure of families in the center that lasted all summer and got a very important social and media coverage. To date, families kept their struggle (many have been forced to enroll your child in a concerted that they do not want to cross. O to move their young children to public schools remotely located) and they have signed a written displaying their willingness to take their children to the classroom with the 19 stars who still dream (every child is a star).
The struggle of the Arcipreste symbolizes perfectly the situation faced by the Community of Madrid dominated by the destruction of the public school and the implementation of GERM policies (privatization, external testing, rankings of centers, support for the charter school, school choice, single zone). Added to this is religious fundamentalism that has put in the hands of religious fundamentalist organizations public ground donated by dozens of years on very favorable economic conditions (many of these schools segregate boys and girls).
You can get more information at:
Aulas en la calle (Classrooms in the street).
