Antoni Vera: "We are honoring the agreements with Vox and will continue with the Language Choice Plan."
The left has attacked the 21 million budgeted for the project, which only has the support of 19 private schools.
PalmThe Regional Minister of Education and Universities, Antoni Vera, defended the agreement with Vox for the budgetary increase of the Language Segregation Plan and defended its continuation. "We will abide by the agreements with Vox and will continue with the Free Language Choice Plan," the regional minister stated in his speech on the second day of the regional budget debate. He lamented that "the opposition cannot tolerate the agreement with Vox and does not accept the rules of the democratic game." It should be noted that only 19 schools, all of them state-subsidized, have joined the plan.
In defense of her department's accounts, which amount to 1.416 billion euros and are up around 4.5% compared to the previous year, Vera claimed that they will be used to improve infrastructure and school transportation, to continue limiting cafeteria prices, to promote conciliation measures, to promote conciliation measures, to promote free education for children from 0 to 3 years, and to "restore dignity to state-funded schools." "No government has dedicated more to education. The budget has grown by 4.4%, more than double the average of regional accounts. Who dares to say that education isn't important?" she concluded. However, it should be kept in mind that the item that is growing the most, and by far compared to the rest, is the one allocated to the General Directorate of Teaching Personnel, which must meet the new salary supplements and commitments made by the Regional Ministry.
Criticism of the €21 million for the segregation plan has virtually monopolized the left's interventions. PSIB MP Amanda Fernández accused the PP of "Castilianizing" education and of having agreed with Santiago Abascal's party on regional budgets to keep Marga Prohens as Prime Minister and Gabriel Le Senne as Speaker of the Parliament. Fernández criticized the €21 million extension of the plan, agreed with Vox, and questioned "the success" of the current 19 centers, all of them state-subsidized. The Socialist party member also accused Vera of "privatizing" education. In this regard, various public and private educational centers The platform La pública no se tocar has denounced that the Regional Ministry is closing units in public centersIn Ferreries, 11 families have been practically forced to enroll their children in a religious school, even though the public school had offered to open an extra line to accommodate them. But the Education Department has refused to authorize it.
The left attacks Vera
MÉS MP for Mallorca, Maria Ramon, spoke in similar terms, describing the plan as "the crown jewel of the budget, a pedagogical nonsense, and the main toll paid to Vox." "Every time they negotiate with Vox, they lose their language and lose their education," she concluded. She also criticized the "comparison" of state-funded schools with public schools, budget after budget, "copying the Madrid model." The eco-sovereignty activist pointed out that more than half of the Ministry of Education's budget is for state-funded schools, even though public schools have many more students. He also questioned the infrastructure plan announced by the Catalan government. "The numbers don't add up, and the only thing that will be inaugurated is the infrastructure that was prepared during the last term," she added.
Regarding the Segregation Plan, the MÁS MP for Menorca, Joana Gomila, criticized the intention to "encourage it" by facilitating the adhesion of at least one school per region. "In Menorca, we do not want the adhesion of any school to be encouraged," she asserted, and demanded that Vera "not spend a single euro on segregating students." Meanwhile, Unides Podem MP Cristina Gómez described the budgets as an "attack" on the educational model. "They do not respond to the needs of schools, but rather are used to impose a reactionary ideological agenda," she said. She cited as an example the 21 million euros for the Language Plan and the lack of investment to address the climate crisis in classrooms.
On behalf of Vox, which will likely support the budget, MP María José Verdú urged "dismantling the farce" that Catalan is under threat. "What is threatened is the right of parents to choose the language their children study in, the right of Spanish-speaking children to learn without discrimination, and the principle of freedom that should govern any educational system," he asserted. Verdú described the left's amendments as "ideological and identity-based."