in defense of state schools

"Let us assume, just for the sake of argument, that there is a party holding the power, a dominant party, which does formally want to respect the Constitution. It does not want to violate it, as a matter of fact. This party does not want to march over Rome and transform the parliament in dorms for the troops; what this party wants to do, is to create the seeds of a new dictatorship, without looking like it is doing so.

So, what could they possibly do to take possession of the schools and transform state schools into schools of the party? The party realises that state schools have the disadvantage of being impartial. There is some resistance; in such schools, there is always resistance, even during the fascism there was some.

Then, the dominant party decides to follow another way (it is a purely theoretical hypothesis, let us clarify this). It starts neglecting state schools, giving them a bad name, turning them poor. It leaves them anaemic, and starts giving favours to private schools. Not to all private schools. To the party's own schools, to that party's schools. Care starts drifting towards these schools. Care means money and privileges. They even start suggesting that students should go to these schools, because after all they are better than the state ones, they say.

And maybe there could be also prizes, as I shall explain, or it could be proposed to give prizes to those citizens who will agree to send their children to private schools, instead than to state schools. To "those" private schools. Exams are easier, you study less and you succeed more. So private school becomes a privileged school. The dominant party, not being able to publicly transform state schools into schools of the party, destroys state schools to make its own private school prevail. Watch out, my friends, this is the point we have to discuss in this convention. Watch out, this is the recipe. We ought to look after the cooks of this vile kitchen.

There are three methods to perform such an operation, as I told you:
1) destroy state schools, ruin them, make their finances poor, ignore their needs;
2) leave down the guard on private schools, avoid to control their seriousness, let teachers who do not have the minimum requirements to teach teach there, let exams become jokes;
3) give private schools public money.
This is the key point. Give private schools public money. This last method is the most dangerous one. It is the most dangerous phase in the whole operation.

The money, which belongs to all citizens, to all taxpayers, to all people who believe in different religions and are affiliated to different parties, goes to feed the schools belonging to one single religion, one single sect, one single party.
(...)

If ever allowed, this game of family prizes could be a rewarded incitement to desert state schools, therefore an indirect way to favour certain schools, an award for those who send their children to such private schools, which do not form citizens nor believers of a certain religion (it could still be worth respect) but build electors of a certain party."


from Pietro Calamandrei's speech
In defense of state schools
Rome, 1950

although it sounds like it could have well be written today.