Shoulder straps' law. Children of security officials are admitted to the best schools without the queues and competitions

With the increase in the number of security officials, more and more other citizens, sending their children to gnaw the granite of science, already on the threshold of school break their teeth because of the"race law" and are forced to fight against the "class discrimination". How does it come out again that someone is more equal?

Victoria Levina

Instead of a preface. According to the federal law "On Education in the Russian Federation", it is possible to refuse to admit a child to an educational institution only because there are no places in it, and no pre-emptive right is found for children registered and living in the territory to which the school is attached.

Musician Alexander Smakotin from Izhevsk will lead his daughter to first grade this September. Processes have been in full swing since January - queues, preliminary appointments, quests on the State Services, meetings with school administrations and teaching staff.

Alexander did not come to the office of the primary school teacher of school No. 40 alone and became an involuntary witness to the dialogue that struck him. A delicate conversation took place between the teacher and the local deputy, who was also concerned about the arrangement of his first-grader child.

"Follow me to the classroom to the teacher entered the deputy city council of the possibility of convening, honorary United Russia, the same king gospodryada, with a haughty air and a good-natured smile, he appears on the verge of a dull classroom, which is his misery only underscores the importance of the figures included", - he says interlocutor.

Further - we quote the dialogue completely from the words of Alexander Smakotin.

“Entering the classroom and propping up the desk creaking under his weight with his weighty belly, the deputy affectionately turned to the teacher:

- Well, and how are you with the places?

- It seems that everything is to the eyeballs, all applications have been submitted, probably, there are no more places, - as if making excuses, the teacher muttered.

- Mmm, - the deputy boomed thoughtfully, - you know, I generally plan to give my daughter in the twenty-ninth lyceum, but there these beneficiaries in uniform poured. Well, you know, the police, all sorts of FSB officers. This is also the National Guard. It looks like all the seats will take. I'm afraid that my influence may not be enough. And I, you know, and with Brechalov [approx. ed. Head of the UR] regularly communicate, not the last person in the city. And what about you with those in uniform? A lot of those?

- Yes, there seem to be some, I'm not sure, but for sure there are. I don’t know these questions, we have to find out from the director, - smiling and biting her lips, the teacher looked away with some embarrassment, and the deputy continued about his own.

- You know, I am an honest and straightforward person, I will tell you straight, as it is, you were recommended to me as a suitable fallback. And your place here is also good, I like it. So, I want, in case these in epaulets there all the places for themselves raked up, you have a place to close!

- Close? - the teacher asked in confusion, and then, as if trying on such an unusual word, almost laughing, she repeated, - close!

- Well, yes, close, you understand - the deputy flashed his irresistible smile, worked out by the voters and added, - well, you go on, I'll talk to the director later.

The teacher did not seem to be surprised at such an impudence of the deputy, and the information about the beneficiaries did not become a discovery for her either, unlike Alexander.

Arriving home, from his parent account, Alexander Smakotin decided to double-check the lawmaker's judgments about the privileges of a certain category of citizens in the hope that they would turn out to be wrong. Opening the form on the State Services, he leafed through the list of beneficiaries applying for school places, and still hoped to see doctors, teachers, representatives of other philanthropic professions, but in the subsection "Justification of the preemptive right to submit an application" there were only shoulder straps, shoulder straps, shoulder straps, and again shoulder straps... There was no gap there even for large families! - says the interlocutor.

As a result, the child did not get a place in a public school by registration (the school is ordinary, not even elite), and the Smakotins had to give their daughter to a private one. Fortunately, the family has such an opportunity, but most parents, especially in the regions, especially those with many children and the poor, have no such prospects...

State School of Engineering and Technology No. 777 in the Primorsky District of St. Petersburg is considered just a prestigious educational institution. Newly opened, with perfect equipment, its own swimming pool, planetarium, botanical garden, a rich variety of clubs and sections, sites for research and innovation, a huge protected area. A considerable number of parental reviews describe the school as "the best in Russia".

It is clear that not only families from nearby neighborhoods are eager to get here.

The Krylov family lives 300 meters from the vaunted school, literally under its hedge, but for now they will only watch other children go there, but not their own son.

Procurement manager Daria Krylova prepared for her son's admission to school in the most thorough way and, probably, learned by heart the entire legislative framework in this area.

On January 20, on the very first day of receiving applications for enrollment in the first grade, in exactly 2 minutes (!) She filled out and sent all the necessary forms on the Gosuslugi (State Services) portal to the School No. 777.

Since his birth, the son has lived in the Primorsky District of St. Petersburg, at the address officially assigned to the school - he was registered even before the foundation was laid. He was also put on the queue in a kindergarten for registration from birth in 2013 (and officials are obliged to monitor and annually update plans for admitting children to educational institutions), so suddenly the child could not “roll out of the lists”.

As a result, in response to the application dated January 20, 2020, about the child's enrollment in the first grade of the educational organization of the State Budgetary Educational Institution "School No. 777" of St. Petersburg, the Krylovs were refused due to the very "lack of free places in the educational organization".

In oral conversations with the school management, at the same time, Daria was told that this year, as in the past, the places are again “occupied by quotas” (federal and regional beneficiaries).

School No. 777 is a state institution of city subordination, it is under the jurisdiction of the Education Committee of St. Petersburg, but not departmental, and therefore the primary registration when drawing up admission plans for the first grades should be carried out, including for children living in the assigned territory.

The Constitution, legislation of the Russian Federation, multiple normative legal acts and documents guarantee the right of every person to education, the inadmissibility of discrimination in the field of education. The very management of the "School of Engineering and Technology No. 777" is absolutely perfectly aware of its duty to ensure equal access to education for students, since it declared it in paragraph 1.16 of its Charter.

In fact, parents who have overcome all the bureaucratic "fun starts" to enroll their child in first grade without a hitch and without a hitch are rejected...

“I cannot name the current situation in the field of education other than social discrimination, when the rights of other citizens are infringed for the sake of privileged categories. My child is an equal citizen of the Russian Federation. My husband and I are the same working citizens of the Russian Federation with equal rights. We comply with all laws and pay all taxes regularly. But as soon as it comes to fulfilling its minimum duty to us by the state, we are forced to participate in some humiliating competition, ”says Daria.

“In the first three classes, they filled only with beneficiaries. Children of the military, FSB officers, Russian guardsmen, and so on. The rest of the children - a few can slip through only by initiating conflict commissions - then the "window" is opened for a short time. Closed school. Towers with sentries, an iron fence, no signs for parents, parents cannot get inside , ”the parent continues.

It should also be noted here that the Krylov family has served the state for more than one generation. Daria's husband, the father of a first-grader, is a long-distance sailor, a captain's mate. Both parental families also gave themselves to Russia in full measure: one grandfather is a veteran of military operations in Afghanistan and Abkhazia, a colonel of the medical service and still a practicing doctor; the second grandfather is a veteran submariner; the first grandmother is a teacher of the Russian language and literature of the highest category; the second grandmother is a veteran of the Internal Troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, continues to work in a military unit in a civilian position. But the merits of the whole family did not help the grandson in any way enroll in the first grade at the place of registration.

Despite the fact that the nearest school can be seen from the windows of the apartment, as an alternative, officials suggest that the child go to an educational institution 1.5 km from the house. The child's father, a merchant seaman, has been sailing for six months and for this reason cannot take his son to school. For Daria herself, this does not allow her work schedule (in addition, she has an oncological diagnosis), grandparents live outside the city.

The paper bureaucratic refusal to this family actually means that the seven-year-old son will have to independently overcome 4 busy roadways every day, 3 of which are not equipped with traffic lights and are places of increased danger and frequent accidents, the mother notes.

The general accessibility of education, inter alia, means physical accessibility, which in turn means the safe physical reach of education by visiting an educational institution located at a reasonable geographic distance, Daria cites clause 2.1 of the Decree of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation No. 5-P of 15.05. 2006. And in the decree of the Chief State Sanitary Doctor of the Russian Federation of December 29, 2010 N 189 "On the approval of SanPiN 2.4.2.2821-10" Sanitary and epidemiological requirements for the conditions for organizing training in educational institutions", under pedestrian accessibility in II and III construction and climatic zones a distance of no more than 0.5 km is meant.

But all these laws and arguments seem to be nothing for the school administration. The commission on the settlement of controversial issues in the exercise of the right to receive a general education in St. Petersburg, to which Daria, along with other parents who were refused, appealed against the decision of the educational institution, did not support the parents.

This year, the Commission of the Education Committee of the Government of St. Petersburg considered 215 applications for enrolling children in the first grade of school No. 777 - this is twice as much as the school can accept, even opening 5 parallels.

“Each application of the parents (legal representatives) was considered taking into account the circumstances set out, confirmed by the relevant documents. Based on the results of the consideration, a decision was made to open additional first classes. Unfortunately, it is not possible to make a positive decision for everyone living in the microdistrict in order to avoid violating the rights of other children”, - says Anna Grubskaya, the Head of the General Education Department of the Committee.

“But someone is still enrolled in this school, and we also know that after the conflict commissions, positive decisions were made on some applicants. So there is room. There is only no transparent logic and decision-making procedure for all candidates, there is an obvious electoral process”, - says the parent.

In search of justice, Daria Krylova turned to local deputies, the Ombudsman for the Rights of the Child in the Russian Federation, the Education Committee of the Government of St. Petersburg, the Presidential Administration of the Russian Federation, and twice initiated a conflict commission. But nobody helped.

Only the Prosecutor's Office of St. Petersburg saw violations. But only as regards the work of the Commission for the settlement of controversial issues in the exercise of the right to receive a general education of the Education Committee of St. Petersburg.

“Indeed, the criteria by which the commission was guided when making decisions on admission / refusal are not defined, which excludes the transparency of its work for the citizens who applied. On this fact, the city's prosecutor's office has made a submission to the chairman of the St. Petersburg Committee on Education”, - writes Kachanova, head of the department for supervision over the implementation of laws on minors, senior counselor of justice.

And in the same answer, the prosecutor, in fact, calmly sets out what we started with, namely: the consolidated preferential right for children of certain categories of citizens:

“At the time of consideration of your appeal, there were no vacant places in the school, since children who had a federal or regional benefit, confirmed by the relevant documents, were admitted to the first grade, giving them the preferential right to be admitted to school and enrolled in an institution on the basis of orders of the director No. 01-ud of 01/13/2020 and No. 04-ud of 01/17/2020, "the prosecutor's office said in a response.

In accordance with the current legislation, parents working in law enforcement and law enforcement agencies, indeed, it is no longer possible to refuse admitting their children to an educational institution only because of the lack of registration at the addresses assigned to the school, says lawyer Valeria Mikhalchenko:

“In accordance with clause 4 of article 67 of the Federal Law of December 29, 2012. "On education in the Russian Federation", admission to a state or municipal educational organization may be refused only due to the lack of free places in it, except for the cases provided for by parts 5 and 6 of this article and article 88 of this Federal Law. In the absence of places in a state or municipal educational organization, the parents (legal representatives) of the child, in order to resolve the issue of his placement in another general educational organization, apply directly to the executive authority of the constituent entity of the Russian Federation in charge of state administration in the field of education, or to the local government body in charge of in the field of education. As can be seen from the content of the article, it is also impossible to refuse admission to an educational institution due to the fact that the child is not registered on the territory of the educational institution (this is to the question of beneficiaries)".

In Moscow, they are still trying to somehow balance the situation with beneficiaries. Children of federal beneficiaries (people in uniform) are not taken to the detriment of children geographically attached to the school, teachers comment.

“The primary right to enroll in the first grade still belongs to those children who live in the territory to which the school is attached. In this situation, it is clear that you cannot throw out a child who lives next to the school, there are always enough places for them, and taking someone else instead of them is a scandal! Another thing is that the classes are overloaded, because in addition to this, categories are taken that have advantages - power structures. Indeed, security officials, military personnel, officers who have gone through hot spots have the right to be enrolled in schools bypassing the territorial principle. Even large families do not have such a right separately if there are vacancies, do you understand? This is true, this is the law, and we do not live on the moon. This problem is certainly felt. Indeed, they want their children to go to good schools. They wandered around the garrisons, and when they get to the capitals or a large city, they want their children to receive a full-fledged education”, - comments Evgeny Yamburg, Honored Teacher of the Russian Federation, Doctor of Pedagogy, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Education, Director of School No. 109 in Moscow.

The northern capital, or rather two deputies from the St. Petersburg Legislative Assembly, as you know, a year and a half ago made an attempt to expand preferences for children of security officials / law enforcement officers when entering school, which caused a flurry of public criticism.

In December 2018, United Russia party members Alexander Teterdinko and Pavel Zelenkov proposed to enroll in priority order, that is, out of turn, for children of judges, prosecutors and employees of the Investigative Committee in schools at their place of residence that do not have a boarding school. Now the right to extraordinary enrollment of children in schools have employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the bodies of the penal system, military personnel, firefighters, customs officers. Children of ICR workers, prosecutors and judges are enrolled out of turn only in educational institutions that have a boarding school.

The people's representatives argued their initiative by the fact that these categories face pressure on a daily basis, so they need to provide additional social support on an equal basis with other representatives of power structures. "The professional activity of judges, prosecutors and investigators is characterized by high workload, the need to fulfill the assigned duties in conditions associated with a significant risk to life and health, increased psychological stress", - explained Teterdinko and Zelenkov.

The initiative was rejected, but her ghost, apparently, still wanders around St. Petersburg.

Do security officials need additional benefits for children?

Police officers, investigators, prosecutors, judges, military personnel already have many benefits compared to other citizens: they retire earlier, take longer vacations (some departments - with partially compensated costs), are served free of charge in departmental medical institutions and sanatoriums, apply for obtaining subsidized housing, etc. They receive a high, white salary (unlike most other citizens).

It is obvious that the desire to legitimize the priority right to enroll their children in educational institutions, regardless of registration, is rather an attempt to organize unhindered access to the best educational institutions of the country, bypassing the competitive criteria.

The situation with clout in education, given the general trend of a shortage of places, will obviously only get worse in the near future.

Over the past 5 years, the number of security officials in Russia has grown by 10%, the Project calculated. Every 57th Russian (about 2.6 million people) works for them. The army remains the largest law enforcement agency in Russia - as of 2018, there were 793.5 thousand active servicemen in the Ministry of Defense. At the same time, the total number of internal troops - the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Rosgvardia exceeds the size of the Russian active army by 30%. The third largest service is the Federal Penitentiary Service. Supervises over 211 thousand prisoners in Russia. The Federal Security Service has a similar number of employees - at the level of 200 thousand people. Since 2012 the largest increase was seen in the number of prosecutors and investigators - by 25% and 23% respectively. The staff of the Ministry of Defense has also grown significantly - by 19%. “Almost a third of the entire federal budget of the country is spent on all Russian security officials every year. The share of expenditures on the item "security organs" of the total expenditures on security officials in the federal budget rose to 7%. In all law enforcement agencies, the average salaries are 2-3 times higher than the national average, and since 2012 the salaries of the employees of the penal system have increased the most”, - the study says.

But these privileges are not enough. The "boot" wants to go to the schools, post its tables of rank there, and is only interested in the best institutions of the homeland...