Valencia's strained coffers threaten 450 public-private schools with closure

The situation regarding non-payments is "unsustainable" and if it continues like this we will be "obliged to close." That's how a statement sent by the board of the public-private Ramiro Izquierdo de Castellón school in the Valencia region to parents on Wednesday concluded. The non-religious school has not received its monthly funding from Alberto Fabra's regional government since last June. The Generalitat now owes it 104,000 euros for the July-December period.

The situation is identical to that of 450 other public-private schools in the region. The Valencia government's debt to them has gone up to 50 million euros and affects 225,000 students.

Popular Party (PP) regional premier Fabra said Wednesday his wish was to resolve the issue in the "coming weeks" and summoned the schools to a meeting on Friday. However, he has yet to commit himself to payment installments. Parents note that the Valencian government has "still to fulfill" its promise to pay part of the debt before the end of 2011.

The debt also affects public schools, though the situation is less critical there because local governments pay for their upkeep. Nevertheless, it is clear the parlous state of the Valencia regional coffers and announced cuts of 1.057 billion for 2012 are threatening to bankrupt its education system.

Until now, the Ramiro Izquierdo de Castellón school, a so-called concertado school where parents pay a portion of the costs, has met its bills for cleaning and administration staff, electricity, telephones, teaching materials, furnishings and other expenses from its own funds. However, it has now reached its limit. The situation is particularly serious at this Castellón school because it also assumes the costs of its pupils' book credits and the Generalitat has not made payments for those either.

On Wednesday the CCOO labor union's Valencia regional chief of the federation of public-private teaching, Pepa Ramis, described the situation in the 450 Valencia schools as "dramatic," saying some institutions were unable to meet "monthly salary payments" for their maintenance workers. She added that certain centers even had to ask teachers "to give up" their Christmas payments or "part of their salaries" to pay these workers.

The president of the Association of Education and Management, which groups together many of Valencia's public-private schools, revealed that many of the affected institutions had sent out letters to parents before Christmas informing them of the "seriousness" of the situation. A large number of public-private schools state their "accounts are empty" and "don't know where to withdraw from" to keep them open, said Vicenta Rodríguez.

Regional education chief María José Catalá has called for calm and declared she hopes to offer "more than just words" in Friday's scheduled meeting with the schools' representatives. However, she did not want to talk about dates for the payment of at least part of the debt.