Education was always a matter of the utmost importance for Spanish Republicans, who considered it one of the best tools to modernize Spanish society. Therefore, when they reached power in April 1931, the government made great efforts to improve education by increasing its budget, dignifying the status of teachers, increasing the number of schools, improving the existing ones, and decreeing a series of complementary measures, such as the establishment of summer schools, and canteens in the schools. The pedagogical experiences that the Institución Libre de Enseñanza had been developing during the previous decades were extremely important. For example, the Instituto-Escuela in Madrid, which since 1918 had been a model for the radical renovation of primary and secondary school, served as a model for similar centers founded by the government in Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, and Malaga from 1932 on.