Is Chile Too Cheap to Educate Its Young?
Students must borrow heavily to fund their university degrees
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Katherine Barrios’s five years at a Chilean university left her with debts of about 12.4 million pesos ($25,000), more than twice her annual salary as a teacher. That’s why she’s taking part in protests that have shuttered many schools and threaten to undermine 30 years of fiscal austerity. “I want things to change for coming generations,” says Barrios, 31.
Chile, the model of economic and political stability in Latin America for the past 20 years, was rocked in June when a quarter of a million pupils occupied classrooms to demand more government investment in education. On Aug. 25 the weekly protests degenerated into pitched battles with police.