A/HRC/29/30 equitable and inclusive. The Special Rapporteur finds it difficult to reconcile this vision with the social implications of privatizing education. Unless social policy becomes transformative in a spirit of (re)distributive justice, progress towards development goals is at risk and violent conflict may result.30 D. Preserving and strengthening education as a public good 62. Privatization adversely affects education as it “recast[s] education not as a public or societal good grounded in democratic principles of justice and equal opportunity but as an individual, atomized and personalized private good”.31 Private, for-profit schools disregard basic norms and standards and undermine education as a societal good. 63. The Special Rapporteur has consistently underlined the importance of preserving education as a public good, while promoting the view that the State is the custodian of quality education as a public good. Understanding the multifaceted role of the State in education is a precondition for critically analysing educational institutions and their responsibility for preserving and strengthening education as a public good.32 64. Safeguarding education as a public good should be an overriding concern in considering recommendations and analyses presented in the report of the Intergovernmental Committee of Experts on Sustainable Development Financing submitted to the General Assembly at its sixty-ninth session (A/69/315). VII. Differentiated public policy responses towards non-State providers of education 65. Alternative schools for linguistic, cultural or religious reasons in line with article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights have a recognized place in education systems and are important in maintaining diversity and protecting minorities within countries. 66. There are other important avenues for meeting demands in education while a State pursues the progressive realization of the right to education. Not-for-profit, NGO, community and religious schools all have different motivations, dynamics and outcomes. Governments can, as in Brazil, categorize various non-State providers in education. In Spain, contractual arrangements33 between a region and a private school establish mutual rights and obligations. Public support to such educational establishments must, as provided in the Constitution of Cabo Verde, for example, be subject to pursuing the public interest. 67. Public policies can help communities and NGOs to establish schools. Community schools can play a meaningful complementary role in the realization of the right to education. Such schools may be sources of innovation, leading to new teaching methods, curricula or school management practices that can improve the public system. As in the 30 31 32 33 Esuna Dugarova and Tom Lavers, “Social inclusion and the post-2015 sustainable development agenda”, paper prepared for UNITAR briefing for delegates on the post-2015 development agenda and social inclusion (United Nations Research Institute for Social Development, April 2014), pp. 2 and 3. Macpherson, “Interrogating the private-school ‘promise’”, p. 295. See Zajda, Decentralization and Privatization, introduction. Spain, Organic Law 8/2013 for the improvement of quality of education. 11