Spanish – For over half a year, Spaniards have been locked up in their homes because of the pandemic. Amidst the lockdown, the socialist coalition government passed a law to take away even more freedom from families- this time from parents- the freedom to educate their children.
This is what civil society, Citizens, the Popular Party, and Vox are condemning. Because of the coronavirus, they took to the streets of Spain, protesting in cars. And spontaneous actions continue.
The proposed organic law on education is associates with the name of the Minister of Education and Professional Training, Isabel Celaá. Since June 2020, she has confronted in Congress the amendments of the parties mentioned above.
The three parties accuse the “Celaá law” of trying to ideologize education, taking away parental authority, and above all, replacing that role with that of an all-powerful state.
PanAmPost contacted Carla Toscano, Vox’s Congressional Representative and spokesperson for the Commission on Gender Violence, for more details.
What is the Celaá law, and why are they opposing it?
In the first place because it is a totalitarian law that violates the right of parents to choose the education of their children as guaranteed by Article 27.3 of the Spanish Constitution.
It does not guarantee the teaching of Spanish in regions such as Catalonia, the Basque Country, the Valencian Community, Galicia, or the Balearic Islands, ignoring the will of the parents. This is a payment from the government to its separatist partners.
It attacks subsidized education by eliminating the “social demand” to open new subsidized centers or to increase their places, and they will not be able to receive fees from families when the power to choose a school is a fundamental right.
This law wants to hollow out and eventually close down the special education schools, exclusively proposing inclusive education.
In short, it is a law that attacks excellence and, above all, the freedoms of the Spanish people.
Hoy muchos españoles hemos salido a la calle para manifestarnos contra la Ley Celaá y para defender la educación especial, la concertada, el español y sobre todo la libertad.
Para decirle a este Gobierno totalitario: ¡sacad vuestras sucias manos de nuestros hijos!#StopLeyCelaá pic.twitter.com/GasqGlTRmP— Carla Toscano (@eledhmel) November 22, 2020
What does the proposed law reflect amid a pandemic?
The fact that this law is being proposed at this time means that the government is only concerned about its ideological agenda and staying in power. Given the current situation of economic and health crisis, when tens of thousands of Spaniards have died in the most tragic conditions, and continue to die when the virus remains unchecked, and millions of families are out of work, it is miserable that the government is proposing a law that does nothing to improve the living conditions of the citizens and only serves to lower the level of education to manufacture future voters. This government shows that it does not care about Spaniards at all and only uses them as pawns to indoctrinate and control.
How does the law intend to change the vision of young people regarding the role of the state, and what ideological purpose does it serve?
This law, like other regional laws passed by different parties, aims to usurp the place of parents and let the state or government decide how and what our children should think. Violating the fundamental and constitutional right of parents to be the ones who decide which values they transmit to their children, the state or government is presented as the moral authority that guides the minds of our children. In this way, ideological, feminist, and sexual content is taught against the will of the parents and without any possibility of dissent. Therefore, Vox proposes the Parental Pin, which consists of permission that parents can sign or not when their children are taught some ideological content; without that parental authorization, minors cannot receive such content. In Spain, we have been called fascists for this proposal when, in reality, we are the only ones who defend the freedom of parents against a totalitarian state.
By demanding changes in private education (particularly religious), would the state be overstepping its bounds?
The state is already exceeding its functions. Spain is already a totalitarian state. One example is to deprive the subject of religion of academic value because it does not fit with the morality or ideology that the social communist government wants to impose on citizens. The government is implanting a feminist and leftist ideology, and just as they use other methods in the media, of propaganda in the streets and various campaigns with the money of the citizens, the schools are the basis for “fabricating” future voters: parents are contradicted and delegitimized if they dissent from the progressive consensus. They are teaching aberrant ideological content, and thus, children are destroyed so that they can be managed by the state in the future. They think that attacking private education is essential because, in theory, it is a “dissident” education that is out of their control; that is why they have to eliminate it.
What would be your message to Spain and Latin America about resistance to legislation like this?
The left is totalitarian by definition. In Spain and many Latin American countries such as Argentina or Mexico, we are living under the dictatorship of the globalist agenda imposed on our countries by leftist governments. My message is that we must rebel, not give in- with all the democratic means at our disposal. We have an obligation to defend our freedom tooth and nail because if we don’t, we don’t deserve that freedom.