This paper discusses issues concerning the implementation of quasi-market dynamics, the introduction of private interests and market rules in the provision of formal education at compulsory levels in the Spanish educational system. It aims to discuss current neoliberal discourses and practices in Spain, suggesting new spaces to be considered in future education policy studies. The first section focuses first on the ideological sources on which the political action rests and sketch some basic principles developed by the market advocates in the Spanish case. The second part deals with specific mechanisms implemented to guarantee a fertile ground for the establishment of market dynamics in the education system, which has facilitated a significant growth in the private provision in compulsory education levels throughout the last thirty years. Finally, we offer some examples of the changing nature of the private sector in Spain, arguing that the until now not-for-profit religious sector, which received the majority of State funding directed to private schools, is ceding ground to a rising set of new for-profit ventures in education.