Mauroy defends Savary plan for schools

by Peter Stanford PIERRE Mauroy, who resigned as French Prime Minister last week along with the whole of his cabinet, has described the continuing debate over the future of France's private schools as a "dialogue of the deaf".
Commenting in a letter to the vice-president of the Senate, Pierre-Christian Taittinger, the former Prime Minister defended the legislative plan proposed to the National Assembly by his Education Minister, Alain Savary.
The "Savary Plan" safeguarded the financial independence of private schools (which make up 15 per cent of the education sector and are 94 per cent Catholic) M .Mauroy stated. He went on to reject M Taittinger's charge that parents' freedom of choice and private school teachers' status had both been compromised. The plan guaranteed true independence, he said.
M Mauroy's letter was made public as speculation grew in political circles that President Mitterrand's decision to hold a reierendutn on the schools' issue had played a large part in the resignation of the Mauroy cabinet.
However, the consensus seems to be that it was just one of a number of factors which embittered the relationship between the President and his Prime Minister. Other contentious issues included the high level of inflation, economic and industrial discontent at M Mauroy's austerity plan, and the poor showing of the Socialists in recerr f tocat and European elections.
The bill which M Savary presented to the National Assembly in May was the fruit of many months of patient negotiations with all sides involved in education. M Savary had staked his reputation on the passage of the bill, it had been rumoured.
However, his negotiations had taken place against the backcloth of a series of demonstrations by supporters of private schools, culminating in one and a half million people taking to streets of Paris on June 24 in protest.
On July 12, after the National Assembly had accepted the Savary Plan, the President stepped in and dropped the controversial legislation, and gave his backing to a referendum on the issue. Since the constitution of the French Fifth Republic only allows for such polls on questions of government, a first referendum will have to be held in September to change the constitution, and thus pave the way for a referendum on the schools' question in January.
So far the new French Prime Minister, M Laurent Fabius and his Education Minister, M JeanPierre Chevenement, have not made their position on the education debate clear.