The budget allocates more money for the concerted program and keeps the dining room scholarships frozen for another year
With the defense of “the freedom to choose the center” and the network concerted by flag, the Minister of Education defends this morning the accounts of her department, which register an increase of 111 million euros, although they grow in a lesser proportion than the budget of the Community, in the Regional Assembly. The disputed former Vox María Isabel Campuzano has announced the extension of the free textbook plan, which according to her calculations, will finally reach all students from the third year of Primary to the fourth year of ESO.
With years of delay, Education would thus complete the project so that the families of compulsory education students (with the exception of first and second years of Primary, who are left out due to the type of material they use) have free textbooks. Campuzano has announced an endowment of 15 million euros for this plan, which will save more than 200,000 families on the purchase of books. The next academic year it will be necessary in any case to change the books of almost all the courses in application of the Lomloe.
Private centers will receive 27 million more in subsidies, and Secondary personnel expenses skyrocket to 453 million
Scholarships for books increase, but those for dining rooms are frozen again. The claims of NGOs and European organizations about the shortage of dining aid in the Region, with the worst coverage in Spain in these scholarships, have had no effect on the budgets, which allocate the same amount as in recent years, a little more than four million euros that will barely give 6,000 dining aids to families with few resources.
The accounts for 2023 reserve a greater effort than other years for Early Childhood Education, which must advance in the free public nursery places, and 11.7 million euros have been allocated for the creation of 3,500 places in 0 to 3 years. Also to Vocational Training, with 118 million euros that will allow the offer of 38,000 places and 700 training cycles next year. Campuzano has been very satisfied with the increase of 111 million euros that raises its budget to 1,532 million euros for the next financial year. An increase of 7.8% that will go to, among other items, concerted education, which will receive more than 27 million more than this year, reaching 307 million euros. The increase is explained in part by the salary increase and the vegetative growth in the centers. Campuzano has made an enthusiastic defense of the concerted network during his speech, and has insisted that “this government has been, is, and will be a firm defender of all areas, freedom is not viable without options to choose from. Compulsory education is provided in Spain with a double network, public and concerted, and for this reason the regional government works so that all students receive an excellent education.
The Education accounts for the next financial year grow, but not in the proportion that the total budget of the Community does. The item for regional education next year increases by 7.8%, an increase well below the growth of the Community accounts, which increase by more than 11%.
Expenditure for personnel in public Primary schools rises, but the most notable increase is for Secondary teachers, with a notable increase in personnel expenses of 46 million, up from 407 million euros last year to the 453 budgeted for 2023. An increase that will end up destined to increase personnel, with new positions, and the agreed salary improvements. The counselor has remarked that her department has allocated 998 million for the teaching staff of public centers, an increase of 76 million that contemplates the process of integrating technical vocational training professionals with its own funds. “A plan that was approved by Pedro Sánchez, and in which we have asked the minister to collaborate by releasing the funds, but due to her lack of commitment and loyalty, we are not going to leave these teachers in the lurch.” The item for teaching includes the call for “massive selection processes that will allow the interim rate in Secondary to be lowered to 8%, just as we already did in Primary until it has remained at 4%.”
The deployment of the plan to increase the number of public nursery places (from 0 to 3 years), which continues to be one of the smallest in Spain, concentrates part of the education budget efforts, with items for the conversion of municipal places and child care centers in the Infant Centers and subsidies to private centers. Education has planned the creation of 3,500 places for the next academic year.
The budgets also contemplate the plan to reduce the ratios to a maximum of 22 students per class, which at the moment is limited to the first year of Infant, more investment for special and inclusive education, an increase in reception classrooms to meet the growing arrival of students who do not know the language and a rehabilitation and improvement plan for the deteriorated park of schools and institutes, which will receive money for their electrical installations, improve accessibility and remove the covers.
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