From rent to classrooms: the PD’s responses to the cap on foreign students. Biffoni: “Let Meloni come to Prato”

“The issue is there and I don’t want to underestimate it. But Meloni is starting from the wrong perspective: before setting a percentage, we should be asking ourselves how to help children learn Italian and how to improve the standard of learning in classrooms.” This is how Matteo Biffoni, the Democratic Party mayor of Prato, commented to Il Foglio on the government’s proposal to introduce a cap on the number of foreign pupils per class. In his city, where the textile district is home to Italy’s largest Chinese community, some schools have as many as 90 per cent foreign pupils. From his point of view, the proposal is unworkable: “This tears families apart,” he observes regarding the measure due to be discussed by the Council of Ministers on Thursday. Biffoni also comments on Meloni’s decision to announce the proposal during the Fdi youth festival: “That decision indicates we are in the middle of an election campaign, and announcing it at Fenix is a move to prevent those young people from being tempted to vote for other parties”. Any reference to Vannacci is purely coincidental. 

The mayor has written a letter to Meloni, explaining that in several nursery and primary schools the 30 per cent cap would be “simply unenforceable”, as it would force them to refuse enrolment to local children or send them to schools kilometres from home. In the letter, he also highlights the challenges facing the local area, with over 500 young people dropping out of school each year and almost one in two pupils leaving lower secondary school without adequate literacy skills. To tackle these issues, he argues, the local council would need greater tools and resources, starting with teachers of Italian as a second language, supported by new technologies.

Hence the invitation to Meloni to visit Prato, which Biffoni reiterates in his interview with Il Foglio: “She is not simply a political leader. She is also my president. Before making decisions that are impractical, she should come and see situations like ours.”

It is precisely Prato’s experience that Irene Manzi, head of the PD’s education department, refers to when speaking to Il Foglio. What is needed, according to Manzi, are community education pacts – agreements between schools, local authorities and the third sector – to expand educational activities, particularly in the most challenging neighbourhoods, and to tackle early school leaving, including the implicit form affecting pupils who reach their school-leaving certificate without having acquired adequate basic skills. Manzi also extends the discussion to housing policies. “The cost of rent,” she explains, “influences the distribution of households across cities and, consequently, the composition of school classes.” To prevent the formation of ghettoised neighbourhoods, “we must also take action on public housing and urban planning”. She cites the example of Berlin, where on Sunday the Linke, led by Elif Eralp, came first in the regional elections following a campaign centred on the housing crisis, proposing a rent cap and the transfer of around 220,000 flats owned by large property groups into public ownership.

In Pioltello, on the outskirts of Milan, too, pupils of foreign origin account for as much as 70 per cent of the student body in some schools. The Democratic Party mayor, Ivonne Cosciotti, is calling for more resources for schools and is challenging the cap on foreign pupils. Speaking to Quotidiano Nazionale, she highlights in particular the shortage of teachers, exacerbated by the cost of housing. If one were to try to apply the cap, she observes provocatively, pupils would have to be swapped with those from neighbouring municipalities, Cernusco sul Naviglio and Segrate, whilst funding facilities and transport. Cosciotti also highlights the phenomenon of ‘white flight’ – the exodus of wealthier Italian families to other schools, including private ones – which contributes to the concentration of foreign pupils in certain schools.

From Florence to Bologna, other PD mayors have also questioned the feasibility of the proposal. According to Sara Funaro, the government’s decree is “pure populism in the run-up to the election campaign”. To tackle the problem, the call is for more funding for literacy centres. Meanwhile, from Bologna, Matteo Lepore is calling for a plan for school building programmes rather than more “empty talk”.

It is also because of these difficulties that the PD’s education spokesperson considers the involvement of ANCI ‘essential’ and has announced parliamentary hearings to hear from local authorities. ‘A limit set by law,’ argues Manzi, ‘risks creating more problems, as also highlighted by the National Association of Headteachers’. The other point to clarify, she emphasises, is the distinction between those who have only just arrived in Italy and those who have been attending Italian schools for years. The MP criticises Valditara for attributing, “at every turn”, academic delays to foreign pupils that have different causes and vary from region to region. For now, the text of the measure is awaited; it will need to clarify who will be affected by the cap and how it is to be applied in schools where it could result in pupils being transferred kilometres away from home.