Any discussion of parity between public and private education risks venturing into a briar patch of opposition, suspicion and preconception: an old tangle with roots in the very origins of the Italian educational system. The Italian school system was born of the conviction of Risorgimento society that once Italy had been created it was necessary to ''create'' Italians. The importance of the challenge required that sole responsibility fbr the task be assigned to the state. For decades, consequently, the relationship between the state school system and ''other'' schools was precisely one of ''otherness'': as the state gradually took oyer the residual educational responsibilities of other providers Indeed, the Constitution itself holds that the ''formation citizens'' is carried out only within the sphere of public institutions Today, the bitter ideological battle that has accompanied the entire evolution of the educational system appears to be fading away. Very little headway has been made on the issue of parity; however, because owing to the historical factors described above, private schools in Italy have been incapable of creating a true system. Private education today occupies an entirely residual position; and not constituting a system, it is unable to develop the culture and philosophy that would enable it to play a role in the comprehensive redesign of education in Italy, where an old tendency to seek freedom ''within'' institutions rather than the freedom ''of'' institutions lives on.
