MPs from the coalition, the Left Party, and the Party of Alenka Bratušek managed to get two-thirds majority in the National Assembly – the vote was 60 votes in favor and 22 against – to pass a change in the constitution regarding the funding of elementary schools.
The Constitutional Commission must now prepare a constitutional proposal that would change Article 57 of the constitution. The article currently states that education in Slovenia is free, that primary schooling is mandatory, and that it is financed from public funds. The proposed changes would add an amendment stating that public schools are financed from public funds, but that private elementary schools can be financed from public funds as specified in legislation. This would give the National Assembly the power to determine how much money would be set aside to finance private elementary schools.

The executive portion of the constitutional act would also contain a provision requiring laws that determine the funding of education to be coordinated with the changes made to the constitution within three months.

The main purpose of the changes to the constitution is to annul a decision made by the Constitutional Court, which ruled that the National Assembly violated the right of children and their parents to a free elementary school education regardless of their school's founder.

G.C.; translated by J. B.