Free Education and Autonomous Schools: More Autonomy and Support for Non-State Schools

Guaranteeing free education and autonomous schools is not a secondary issue, but one of the great challenges for the future of our country. This was discussed at the Rimini Meeting during the event “Free Education, Autonomous Schools”, organized in collaboration with CdO Opere Educative/FOE, Diesse, Di.S.A.L. and Il Rischio Educativo.

At the speakers’ table – including Marco Galdi, Ignasi Grau, Paolo Maino, Maurizio Serafin, and Massimiliano Tonarini – a clear message emerged: without greater autonomy for schools and without concrete support for non-state schools, educational freedom risks remaining a privilege for the few.

“Families do not just want the school closest to home or the one with the best INVALSI scores,” recalled Tommaso Agasisti, professor at the Politecnico di Milano and moderator of the meeting. “They are looking for an educational environment that reflects their values and helps their children grow as persons, not just as students.”

Yet today in Italy, this possibility is strongly conditioned by income. Law 62 of 2000 recognized parity between state and non-state schools, but without adequate financial support: only those who can afford tuition fees have access to this freedom.
Ignasi Grau, Director General of OIDEL, stated frankly: “Freedom of teaching is a human right, enshrined in all international conventions. But if it remains accessible only to those with financial resources, it is no longer true freedom.”

The European picture is eloquent. In countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, or Ireland, the State guarantees funding for non-government schools, making freedom of choice effective. Italy, instead, according to the latest Freedom of Education Index, ranks among the lowest in Europe, alongside Greece and Cyprus.

Another key issue is autonomy. Today, school principals cannot choose their teachers, nor differentiate salaries, curricula, or calendars. Everything is rigidly uniform, even though the differences among schools – as both teachers and families admit – are enormous.

“We need to move beyond an old model, based on the idea that all schools are the same,” stressed Professor Marco Galdi. “The Constitution itself recognizes pluralism and autonomy as values to be promoted.”

Maurizio Serafin, from the Italian Association of Teachers and School Leaders, presented the proposal of “special autonomy schools,” institutions that could adopt their own statutes, organize curricula innovatively, and select teachers according to criteria more consistent with the educational project. “This is not utopia,” he explained. “Countries like England have already experimented with similar models through academies, with tangible results.”

The picture of resources is bleak. In Italy, public spending on education exceeds 52 billion euros, but only 1.5% is allocated to non-state schools, which serve almost 10% of students.

“Students in non-state schools number about 790,000, but public support has been stuck for over ten years at 500 million euros,” recalled Massimiliano Tonarini, president of CdO Opere Educative. “It is as if the country has forgotten them. Meanwhile, in the past eleven years, non-state schools have decreased by 30%.”

The comparison with other European countries is striking: in Spain, 30% of students attend non-state schools, in France 15%, and in the Netherlands as many as 70%. In Italy, however, only 6% at the primary level and 4–5% at the secondary level.

“This is not an elite issue,” added Paolo Maino, president of Di.S.A.L. “On the contrary: where the school system is plural and supported, as in Belgium or Ireland, students achieve better results in international assessments. Not investing in this means penalizing the entire country.”

At the Meeting, Maino presented four concrete proposals to reverse course and give new momentum to school autonomy:

• Reform school governing bodies, still stuck in the 1970s model, opening them to universities, local authorities, professionals, and community organizations, following the example of Technical Higher Institutes.
• Ensure teaching continuity, overcoming historical precariousness: if a teacher works well in a school and has the support of principals and families, they should be allowed to stay.
• Revive the spirit of Law 107/2015, which provided for the assignment of teachers in dialogue with schools and principals, fostering consistency between educational offerings and professional profiles.
• Approve a new Unified Education Code, updated and simplified, to consolidate regulations currently dispersed across dozens of overlapping laws, restoring clarity and practical tools to those working in schools.

“We do not need new epochal reforms,” Maino said, “but the courage to enhance what already exists and to free the energy of schools, instead of suffocating them in bureaucracy.”

From the meeting came a clear political request: at least align historical funding to inflation, increase contributions for inclusion and preschools, and start a path of stable support, also through vouchers for families.

“Educational freedom is not a partisan flag, but a constitutional right and a pillar of democracy,” concluded Ignasi Grau. “And like every right, it must be guaranteed to all, especially to the most vulnerable families.”