Charter Schools in Denmark and Spain. Between School-Educational Inequality and Public-Civil Collaboration in Education

Abstract

The concerted or charter schools, created by private and civil actors, follow the official curriculum, are entitled to receive public funding, and can be chosen by families in their right school choice, are on the rise both in Europe and worldwide. In many countries it has been observed they have negative effects to reproduce and to generate school-education inequalities. Within the European context, Spain and Denmark have a prominent level and tradition of concerted schools, albeit with different histories, logics, and practices, and with different effects in relation to school-education inequality. The comparison is institutionalist, organizational, and multilevel: a) national; b) regional-local: Madrid and Copenhagen; and c) school: three concerted Jesuit schools (two in Madrid and one in Copenhagen). In Denmark, the heterogeneous sector of concerted schools has operated within a broad consensus on concertation and curriculum, and it has generated dynamics of both inequality and public-civil collaboration. In Spain, the concerted schools, mostly catholic, have operated within favourable formal regulations, but without a clear consensus, contributing mainly to school segregation, while also including possibilities of public-civil collaboration. From this multilevel comparison some policy recommendations can be made, such as the concept of concerted school with a social function as a basis for the public funding agreements, a curriculum consensus, more locally adjusted schooling policies, and an effective and democratic school autonomy. These policies can lead to a better public-civil collaboration to benefit the whole education system, towards lower educational inequality and better education-society relation.