Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri and José Alberto López Rafaschieri
www.morochos.net
The left ruled in Chile for 20 consecutive years. During this period, the only time of great political instability occurred at the beginning of the government of Michelle Bachelet, in 2006, when strong student protests demanded improvements in public education, but the issue was quickly resolved. After that, streets returned to be quiet, the years went by and nobody seems to have noticed any problems with the educational system, as Bachelet leaves the presidency with almost 80% of popularity.
In 2010, a right-wing government comes to power, and in less than two years, the Chilean left begin to remember things they had forgotten for two decades.
In 20 years, the Chilean Concertación coalition had the power, resources and time to completely reform secondary and university education, do they forget that education could be free, and that private universities need better regulations?
We believe the government should provide free education at all levels, as has been proposed by the protesters in Chile; however, we do not share with them the idea of prohibiting profits from schools, universities or educational institutions of any kind. Removing the private sector from the educational system will only produce a third-world education, such as Cuba, or the other countries that have tested this model (without international recognition and Nobel prizes). And we also do not agree with breaking the democratic rules every time an ideology different from the left comes to power in Latin America. There are other ways to demand changes without promoting looting and violence, as when Lagos and Bachelet ruled Chile.
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