The Cession of Public Land for Opening Grant-aided Schools: a New Example of the Enabling State

The latest reform of the Education Act includes a new formula for supporting publically funded private schools in Spain: the cession of public land to build and manage grant-aided schools. This reform seems to reflect various trends: first, the redistribution of tasks between the State and society, to achieve further rationalisation of the public sector, and second, greater protection of the freedom of education recognised by Article 27 of the Spanish Constitution. But this evolution from the Welfare State to the Enabling State calls for some reservations, given the legal nature of grant-aided schools, especially as regards equality in the admission process.