ABSTRACT
José María Maravall was the first Minister for Education and Science in the ruling government of Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE) which came to power in 1982. His period in office lasted from 1982 to 1988. This chapter provides an important insight into PSOE’s approach to education in the early 1980s.1 Maravall is most of all preoccupied in this period by the continuing quantitative deficiencies of state provision for education, and by the historical circumstances which accounted for these, and, in particular, the powerful and socially divisive role of private providers (most important of whom was the Catholic Church) during the dictatorship and the ‘subsidiary’ role adopted by the State. In spite of the watershed represented by the 1970 Ley General de Educación (LGE), private education continued to enjoy considerable financial subsidy during the last years of the Franco Regime and the succeeding government of Adolfo Suaréz. The 1978 Constitution, to which PSOE was strongly committed, guaranteed a system of mixed provision and the right of private providers of compulsory education to state subsidy, provided certain conditions were fulfilled. Maravall argues that the educational policies of the Suaréz Government, as represented in legislation which it introduced only shortly before falling from power in 1982, adopted a very partial interpretation of the Constitution and of the concept of ‘freedom of education’, one which privileged the proprietors of private establishments, even where these were almost wholly state subsidized, and which neglected the interests of the other partners of the educational community. It was to correct this imbalance that the PSOE introduced in 1984 the Ley Orgánica Reguladora del Derecho a la Educación (LODE) which, among other things, established the right of teachers, parents and children to participation in school management and control.
