The Public and the Private in Education

The objective of this study is to define what is understood by state education or, in other words, what makes a school a state school. This approach is based on three basic aspects: the structural sense, the political sense and the educational sense. The structural sense investigates the ownership of the school. The private ownership of an educational centre bars it from being a public centre. In this case, the private would be valued above the public and the shared. In contrast, public ownership does not have to be assimilated into state ownership. The public must refer to what is shared. The political sense indicates that a state school serves the common good and, especially, those most in need. In this sense, a state school is a meeting place for society and is also the only educational space for those sectors that would otherwise not have any other alternative. Finally, the educational sense is, in short, what gives full meaning to state education, insofar as it represents fulfilling the right of children and of the public to access to culture and knowledge.