...a lesson taught by the students, as it were.
Chilean Promised a New Deal; Now Striking Youth Demand It
By Larry Rohter, The New York Times
Santiago, Chile - Less than three months after she took office promising to lead a government that welcomed greater citizen participation, President Michelle Bachelet is facing her first domestic crisis. To the surprise of many here, the challenge comes not from the right but from a group expected to be sympathetic to her center-left coalition: high school students.
In protests that began in mid-May, more than 700,000 teenagers have walked out of classes at public high schools, demanding the overhaul of an education system they say is inferior and discriminatory. They have occupied several hundred schools, sleeping there overnight with sympathetic parents bringing them meals, and last week thousands marched in the streets of the capital here and in other cities in this nation of 16 million...
In a speech to the nation on Thursday night, Ms. Bachelet, who is scheduled to visit the United States later this week, announced a $135-million-a-year package that includes a free lunch program for the poorest students, the repair or renovation of up to 1,200 public schools and the elimination of the $40 college exam fee. "The state will be the guarantor of a quality education for all Chileans," she promised, adding that the nation's youth deserved "to be able to study in dignified conditions."
But on Friday, the main student leaders rejected the proposal, saying it was not generous enough. They said they would renew their protests on Monday, and teachers and university students and professors have pledged to join them. (full article here)
