This paper introduces a new interpretation of previous research findings from two projects supported by European funding. One focused on preventing school and social exclusion of young people, and the other, strategies for supporting schools and teachers in order to foster social inclusion. The topic is no longer only pedagogical. Indeed, recent deregulating drifts in the evolution of Western democracies call for re-analysing the school system’s underlying values as far as they are connected and interdependent with society. Thus, since 2014, the new revised ESA (European System of Accounts) includes illegal activities, such as prostitution, drug trafficking and smuggled goods, because many European countries, like Belgium, Finland, Great-Britain, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Sweden, included these in one form or another, or both, in their GDP (Gross Domestic Product), to increase it. Is the revised ESA consistent with the EU (European Union) educational policy supporting projects to foster educational and social inclusion, that is to say to educate young people to citizenship and with respect for each other? Do the issues of achieving inclusive education principles highlight that there is a contradiction between the democratic societies declared values and their ways of working? Are the latter generated by social forces opposing one another for different underlying conceptions of national and worldwide societies that are more or less based on inclusive values? The paper will analyse how these antagonist values are evident in schooling and the role played by civil society and social agents relatively to the State and in a globalised world. From the right of disabled students to the right to education for all, why do the current conceptions of education lead to raise such questions?
