Xabier, a bus driver of Basque descent, reflects the reality of those who grew up in Rentería and are 30-40 years old. Though his background is ethnic Basque, to avoid the hated public schools he went to a seminary. At the seminary they receive only Spanish education and thus end up loosing grammatical fluency in Basque as his bilingual parents accommodate their children by conversing with them in Spanish, they loose exposure to the Basque language. In a period of trying to reassert his Basqueness he joins the militant youth in acts of street violence. Xabier, though ethnic Basque will not identify himself as euskaldun, but as Vasco and in keeping with this distinction he calls his native city Rentería though he recognizes Errenteria to be the more correct name.

In answering the issue of schools with political affiliation, Xabier explains,

yo creo que si, no es solamente el asunto político, bueno van mezclao, yo creo que es cuestión de sentimiento, un tío que se sienta español y no se sienta vasco no le interesa para nada el euskera ni la cultura euskalduna, porque no la siente… va al modelo A….mod. b y d va de todo. (from a life-story Interview of Xabier)

On one hand, Xabier’s first reaction is to say ‘Yes, schools are politicized and he gives an example of how those attending Spanish immersion schools reflect a population that feels Spanish and does not recognize or value Basque culture.’ His response reflects the native sensitivity to the question and responds accordingly, assuming his duty to expose the political affiliation of the Spanish immersion education as a way of defending from the common attack on Basque language schooling. His perspective shows a keen sensitivity to the silent bias often overlooked as “neutrality” of Spanish-only education. Reflecting his moderated views that stem from his mixed upbringing he wants to defend the efforts made thus far in Basque education so he closes his statement by stating the “neutrality” of the two other models.
Though critical only of the political affiliation of Spanish only schools, Xabier is quick to qualify that present day Spanish-only, or Model A, schooling cannot be compared to the reality of public schools during Franco, "las nacionales solamente durante Franco, pero las públicas ya no." (Xabier). When the distinction is made between las nacionales and las públicas it refers to changes in degrees and form of repression. Public schools during Franco were Spanish-only and the omission of Basque language and culture was overt and purposeful, following hand in hand with disciplinary actions in schools against use of Basque. Others interviewed have provided examples of disciplinary actions in school for use of Basque colors such as those on the Basque flag (red, green and white) adorning her hair as a child. In contrast, nowadays , Xabier argues the repression is covert and is found in the omission of Basque language, in lack of promotion of Basque cultural events, or in the biased telling of history.

If Xabier’s reflects the tendency to answer the question in the negative, as 48% did, it seems that even when stating that “schools” are not politicized the underlying answer is that they are. The negative response rather than addressing schools as a whole repeatedly reveals a knee-jerk reaction that assumes a biased question: “No, Ikastolas are not politicized, but public schools with Spanish dominant curriculums are.”