Private Subsidised Schools and School Segregation of Secondary School Immigrant Students in Spain and its Autonomous Communities

This research seeks to determine the impact of school ownership on the school segregation of students with immigrant background, and of socioeconomically disadvantaged immigrant students in publicly funded secondary schools in Spain and its autonomous communities. To achieve this, we use micro-data from PISA 2022. Specifically, we decompose the school segregation, estimated using the Hutchens index, into the segregation within the public-school sector and within the private subsidized sector, as well as the segregation between both sectors. Our findings reveal that, in Spain, the uneven distribution of students with immigrant background between the public and the private sectors accounts for 4.9% of school segregation in publicly funded secondary schools, rising to 7.3% for socioeconomically disadvantaged students with immigrant background. However, this percentage rises reaching 21.4% in the Region of Valencia and 15.2% in the Community of Madrid for all pupils with immigrant background; and to 20.4% in the Region of Murcia and 18.3% in La Rioja for the most disadvantaged pupils with immigrant background. With this, we conclude that policies are necessary to enforce strict compliance with regulations, suspending or not renewing public funding of private schools if they are violated, with a view to clearly prioritising public education.