Alexandre Chauveau / Photo credits: ANTOINE BOUREAU / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP
A parliamentary report, signed by LFI deputies Paul Vannier and Renaissance Christopher Weissberg, undermines the financing of private schools. The document denounces the opacity and lack of control of public financing of private education. The conclusions of the report are debated, particularly within the right.
Opaque financing, underestimated expenditure, insufficient controls… A parliamentary report undermines public financing of private education under contract, mainly Catholic, and proposes sanctions in the event of breaches. This report relaunches the debate on private contract education, which has two million students. More than 95% of these establishments are Catholic institutions. This parliamentary work could lead to a bill from La France insoumise, which is far from unanimously supported by the Assembly.
“Designate a scapegoat”
Among the 55 proposals in the report, one of the co-authors, Paul Vannier, education advisor to Jean-Luc Mélenchon during the last presidential election, recommends better traceability of public funding and restrictive measures to impose more social diversity. Within the majority, the conclusions of the report are debated: “If there is fraud, it must be punished but we cannot create a climate of suspicion without proof”, declares in private a heavyweight of the majority.
At the National Rally, MP Roger Chudeau denounces a shoddy firefight perceived “as an indictment of Catholic teaching”. “For Mr. Vannier, it is a question of designating a scapegoat. That way, it cannot be the fault of the left-wing politicians who, for 30 or 40 years, have deconstructed the school. We need a scapegoat who is responsible for everything. These processes are despicable,” he explains.
The right of the hemicycle accuses the left of wanting to relaunch the war between the private and the public. The Republicans are calling in particular to dissociate the question of financing from that of freedom of education.