The difficult transformation of a forced constitutional agreement into actual government policy. The Democratic Centre Union and its defunct Law on the Statute of Schools (LOECE) of 1980

Abstract

Under Franco’s Regime, private education, which was managed almostcompletely by the church, underwent considerable development in comparisonto public education. With the arrival of democracy, the conservatives were willingto concede to some minimal changes, whereas the progressives had big reforms inmind. It is because of this that education was one of the most complicated topicsto reach an agreement upon in the Constitution of 1978. In order to achieve aconsensus, Article 27 was drafted in a way which allowed both conservatives andprogressives to develop their educational policies in keeping with their ideology.The Law of Schools (LOECE) of 1980 was the first law regulating educationin accordance with the Constitution. In passing this law, the Government ofAdolfo Suarez, with the support of Manuel Fraga’s conservative party, AlianzaPopular, and the regional nationalist right-wing parties, imposed its ideologyfavouring private education. When the groups from the left saw their proposalsrejected they filed a complaint before the Constitutional Court, which in factdeclared void some of the most important articles contained in the law.The basic consensus achieved during the drafting of the Constitution has notprevented important disagreements from arising afterwards. As a result, withevery change of government there is also a change in the laws and in the wayeducational policies are developed.

Keywords

• LOECE
• Legislación educativa
• Política educativa
• UCD
• Transición política española