Chilean Students Stage Protests

[Judi Lynn]

Chilean Students Stage Protests
By LUIS ANDRES HENAO Associated Press
SANTIAGO, Chile April 12, 2013 (AP)

Tens of thousands of students flooded the streets of Chile on Thursday in one of the largest demonstrations demanding free education.

After two years of student marches that have paralyzed Chile's major cities and generated expectations of change to a troubled system, the crisis over education reform remains a key electoral issue ahead of November's presidential election.

Thursday's protests were mostly peaceful. Students waved flags, chanted slogans and danced in the streets in a festive atmosphere recalling the creative marches of 2011, when thousands dressed as superheroes, staged mass kiss-ins and danced like zombies to Michael Jackson's 'Thriller.'

But the marches, which are often infiltrated by violent anarchist groups, also ended with clashes between police and hooded vandals. Police arrested 109 people, including 24 minors, and at least six police agents were injured.

More:
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/chilean-students-stage-protests-18936498#.UWenbOoo5NU

[Judi Lynn]

1. Something useful I learned from this article, which you might find interesting, too:

Chile's schools were free before Pinochet pushed privatization and ended central control and funding of primary and secondary schools. Public education in poorer districts suffered even as a voucher system directed billions of dollars in public funds to privately-run high schools.

Many Chilean families bore these burdens for years before student activists gave them a voice.

Now that's another small detail our own corporate media also failed to mention to any of us through the years. Pinochet destroyed free education for Chilean children. Nice work, a-hole!

All that, and vouchers, too.

[ocpagu]

2. It should be a crime for a state denying public education to its tax-paying citizens...

...much worse if done by a country which is in good conditions of funding a decent public education, such as Chile. The students are right to be marching, and Chileans should support them. So nice to see this information.

That was one of the things Pinochet had in common with mrs. Thatcher, the belief that every individual who needs the help of the state to grant him his basic human rights is a useless slacker who has to be punished - besides, of course, their obsession with privatization.

The dictatorships in South America pushed their countries' public educational systems in favor of their elites. In Brazil, where there was a fairly decent system of basic public education, the regime moved major part of the resources from basic to superior education. They created a good public network of universities, but decreased a lot the quality of education in basic schools. As the students from upper classes go to private high schools, they end up in advantage to obtain the huge majority of vagues in public universities (which, in Brazil are much better than the private ones). So, the students from the working class and middle are sent to low quality basic schools, and they have to pay to attend a (generally low quality) private institution to obtain a diploma, while also paying for the rich kids education in public universities. Aren't they lovely?

Dilma recently passed a law that obliges all federal universities to reserve 50% of their places for students coming from public schools. That's a start.