Andalusia defies Madrid by cutting funds for single-sex schools

The Andalusian government had been trying to do it since 1999, but the legal hurdles were too high. Now, the southern region's department of education has decided to eliminate public funding for private schools that segregate students by gender. This week Mar Moreno's department informed the 12 centers in question - private schools with public funding known as colegios concertados - that their subsidies will not be renewed.

Andalusia, under Socialist and United Left rule, is taking this road just when the central government of the conservative Popular Party is walking in the opposite direction. The draft education reform of Minister José Ignacio Wert seeks to ensure that segregated schools will continue to get state subsidies. The Andalusian executive argues that the current education law, LOE (whose days are numbered) authorizes it to eliminate this state aid.

But the more than 3,100 students already enrolled at these schools will not miss out. The regional government said it will continue to pay for their schooling until they complete their current stage of education. The cuts thus affect new students, whose studies will no longer be subsidized with public funds.

These 12 segregated centers are only a drop in the ocean. There are nearly 600 privately-run primary and secondary schools in Andalusia that receive public funding, all of which (save those 12) teach boys and girls together in the same classroom. Elsewhere in the country, the situation is similar: of around 5,000 concertados, only 70 or so segregate by gender, and most of these follow ultra-Catholic guidelines. Andalusia and Catalonia are the two Spanish regions with the largest number of schools of this nature, and the Andalusian government has gone the furthest in its emphasis on co-education. What the education commissioner Moreno really wants is for centers that refuse to admit students of either gender to eliminate this policy and accept both boys and girls.

The debate over gender-segregated schools is usually addressed from two viewpoints: the educational and the legal. Supporters of this model say that single-sex schools are widespread in countries like Britain and the United States, and they base their position on research suggesting that cognitive differences between the sexes make boys and girls learn better separately. Yet there is no scientific consensus on this issue.

The legal debate focuses on whether public authorities are entitled to eliminate subsidies for single-sex schools. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of it last July, saying that gender-segregated schools are legal yet cannot be sustained with public funds. However, the court based its arguments on the current LOE, while Minister Wert is planning to overhaul the education law to ensure the subsidies remain. The reform has not yet reached Congress and will likely not be passed until late this year.