The scholarship for children in private schools, the star measure of the capital’s municipal council to alleviate the shortage of places in public centers for children aged 0 to 3, excludes 90% of the families who have requested it and are eligible to receive it: their annual per capita income cannot exceed 30,000 euros. A total of 11,738 families remain in reserve with 1,214 beneficiaries. These are data confirmed by the Governmental Area of Social Policies, Family and Equality of the Municipality of Madrid, which also informs that 6,400 minors were left on the waiting list after asking for a public place in a municipal nursery.
“Education in Madrid is not kind,” says actress Sara Martínez, 40, after learning that she was denied support for private nursery school, despite opting for this subsidy of 385 euros per month because her family’s annual per capita income does not exceed 10,420 euros. The reason for the refusal is that his 10-month-old daughter enrolled in Fúcar’s municipal nursery in April, the only public one within a reasonable distance from her home with the possibility of financial help that she had a real chance of accessing given the great social demand for nursery schools. The problem is that it’s not open yet. The start of the service is expected from January, but is conditional on the completion of the works.
“When they admitted the girl there, my partner and I didn’t know that she wouldn’t be available until next year. In the meantime we have to reconcile and we have no choice but to go to a private school in September,” says Martínez. He doesn’t understand why he won’t be able to receive the scholarship in the last semester of this year if he currently has to attend the Jardimar private nursery. He pays 460 euros a month so that the minor can be looked after for four hours a day on weekdays, without canteen service.
The aid developed by the municipal council is called child plus scholarship and is integrated into the birth promotion and conciliation plan. “The budget for the scholarship this school year is the largest since it was launched: 5.1 million euros. However, the number of beneficiaries is lower than in other courses because the award has been given priority to families in a situation of greater vulnerability”, reported the Government’s Department for Social Policies, Family and Equality.
Please note that the number may be expanded following the order of the waiting list when the final amounts are adjusted, depending on the crèche payment justifications that the beneficiary families will have to present. They clarify that the payment of the scholarship takes place every two months and not at the end of the school year as on previous occasions to avoid parents having to advance the sum corresponding to the entire academic year.
“This Wednesday we confirm in the Social Policies Budget Commission the failure of the PP’s privatization model: 90% of Madrid families who meet the requirements are left without scholarships for their children”, communicates the PSOE councilor, María Caso. “The municipality’s star measure turned out to be the star measure. Don’t fool anyone, they don’t help the families, but the private companies that manage the schools”, he insists. Appeals to the right of minors to be enrolled in public schools.
The socialist urges the Madrid city government to take into consideration the municipal nursery school master plan 2025-2030, proposed by her party a year ago, but rejected by the PP. “We need to build more centers and expand existing ones to halve the current deficit of places in the city of Madrid in that period. The solution is not to grant scholarships to enroll in private schools”, defends Caso.
For Martínez the current strategy seems like a business. “Families have to enroll in private nursery schools in April, without yet knowing whether their children will have a place in public ones. It’s crazy, even pregnant women come to the open days who are already afraid of being left without a place,” says the woman. This week he will file an administrative appeal for his daughter’s exclusion from the municipal scholarship. She is considering requesting an extension of her December monthly payment at her daughter’s current daycare, which is private. “It is becoming difficult for us. The struggle for the birth rate is great, but we must ensure that children have as kind a life as possible,” he says.
