Although we generally open this newsletter with issues of national interest, today I want to make a stop in Madrid to talk about the situation of universities, which are dying. I’m talking about the public ones, of course, the private ones are going from strength to strength in a community that gives free rein to practically any proposal that comes to it.
For public ones there is not so much wide sleeve. The six in Madrid have been surviving for years as best they can the policies of different PP governments that are not very enthusiastic about public affairs, but the situation is no longer sustainable. The rectors, tired of trying to negotiate with a good face and without raising their voices, have gotten tired.
In what represents a clear change in strategy, the leaders have gone on to explain to the general public what the situation is in Madrid of an institution as basic for a country as its university. After a protest in April that had no effect, this past Thursday they all unanimously approved a declaration expressing their “critical” situation and warning of the serious consequences that this will have on the normal functioning of the centers. In some, like the Complutense, They are considering closing degrees, masters and doctorates due to lack of means.
They have their arguments, the principals. Madrid universities receive just 5% more public funds today than they did 15 years ago, when life – the CPI – has risen 35%. Some campuses are falling apart (Complutense) and others need special protection (Alcalá is a World Heritage Site), but the infrastructure is practically non-existent. The rectors also often allude to the fact that Madrid is the richest community in Spain, but the one that invests the least in the University and at the same time (precisely for this reason, rather) the most expensive to study. With these and other reasons, the rectors meet today with Ayuso to ask for more funding.
The president believes that universities are nests of wasteful leftists – she says so herself – and is acting to erode public service while reinforcing the private one. It is exactly the same thing that happens with healthcare. The war is total between rectors and the regional government.
And in these the central government has appeared, always ready to attack Ayuso. This Monday, Minister Diana Morant reproached the president for being the only community that has rejected an agreement with Moncloa to finance more than 4,000 university teaching positions required by the new law. “It is incomprehensible” that Madrid gives up 169 million euros and almost a thousand places, Morant told Ayuso.
In relation to this and that of comparisons between equals: Moreno Bonilla has injected almost 50 million euros into the University of Malaga to rescue it from “an unprecedented crisis.”
This week we talked about…
The school in Seville that does not want a member of Vox on its school council. It is the CEIP San José Obrero, in the Macarena district, which has expressed its rejection of the appointment of a member of Vox as a representative of the City Council on its school council. The center argues that his appointment is incompatible with the idiosyncrasy of a school in which more than 60% of the students come from families of immigrant origin of more than 30 different nationalities.
The Xunta wants to return to the Galician plan of 2004 that Feijóo broke. The proposal is to “renew” the General Plan for Linguistic Normalization that was unanimously approved by the Parliament of Galicia in 2004 and that Feijóo would break shortly after. Cause-consequence: in 15 years of PP cabinets, the number of children between 5 and 14 years old who do not know how to speak Galician has multiplied by two, reaching a third of the total.
To upload grade
Schools in Benetússer reopen, but many others remain closed. Last Thursday there was good news in Benetússer: three schools opened. But the situation is still far from being resolved for thousands of students like Juan, who at the age of five walk six kilometers every day (easily two hours for a child) to catch a bus to Valencia. And it could still be worse. Izan has barely left the house since DANA. Some 10,000 students are still unable to go to class a month after the floods.
Esther Monterrubio, new general secretary of FP. Born in Guipuzcoa in 1967, she has held several positions within this same area in the ministry. Now she will be the head of the FP and will have to manage the great expansion who is experiencing this stage. Also privatization in some communities, such as Madrid and Catalonia. With the departure of Clara Sanz, the top person since 2018 and the person who has carried out the new law, Minister Alegría completes the replacement of senior positions inherited from her predecessor. The ministry is now 100% his.
High capabilities: what they are and what they are not. This article sheds a little light on high abilities, a label that we give to some boys and girls but the vast majority are not clear what it consists of. Two experts explain it to you.
Thank you very much for reading us.
Next Tuesday I’m in your mailbox again.
See you next week!
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