Chile: A Long-Term Neoliberal Experiment and Its Impact on the Quality and Equity of Education

• In Event: Global Education Reform: How Privatization Versus Public Investment Influences Education Outcomes

Abstract

This presentation will address the symposium research questions by situating the market-based approaches to education in Chile within the political history and economic reforms of the past forty years. The author has in-depth personal and professional knowledge of the Chilean education system and will use current research such as the latest SIMCE results and other national indicators, as well as first-hand experience with students and the main issues raised during their protests, to identify how Chilean policies affect student opportunities and performance.

As a brief history, the Chilean neoliberal experiment was carried out by a group of Chilean economists who studied Milton Friedman’s ideas at the Chicago School of Economics. They decentralized the state by privatizing welfare and social programs, liberalizing trade, and deregulating the market. Recently, this experiment has led to tens of thousands of students refusing to attend school for large portions of the last three school years because of perceived inequities in educational opportunity. Chilean students have demonstrated against a privatized voucher system that effectively reinforces a student’s socio-economic status in their choice of school and produces dramatically unequal educational quality and outcomes.

During the shift to a neoliberal approach to education, Chile implemented seven different steps that adversely affected students’ access to schools, teacher capacity, and public schools. Steps included limiting free public education to primary schools, decentralizing authority to municipalities (thereby changing the union status of teachers), and implementing a national assessment called the SIMCE. Before these changes, teachers had received a doubling of the index of their salaries and wages from 1960-72. With the implementation of free pricing schemes and changing of salary scales, teacher salaries regressed to 1975 levels during the period of 1982-1990, limiting the entry of teachers into the profession over time.

For schools, the results of 32 years of applying the neoliberal economic paradigm show that the number of public schools drastically dropped from 72% in 1980 to 46% by 2012. Meanwhile, the number of private subsidized schools increased from 18% in 1980 to 49% in 2012. This change primarily stems from the monthly mandatory fee, known as co-pay, charged to parents at private subsidized schools that can also select their students, allowing them to increase their SIMCE results. Because deregulation allows school to make profits, many private schools changed status, becoming private subsidized schools that select students and charge parents, all while receiving state resources.

As a result of these policies and outcomes, Chilean students have staged demonstrations and essentially boycotted schools at the secondary education, revealing a deep dissatisfaction with the application of the neoliberal economic paradigm on their education system. They have demanded change at all levels, resulting in the election of a center-left coalition in 2014 and signaling that changes that prioritize education as a public good may yet become a reality.

Author

• Abelardo Maximo Castro Hidalgo, Universidad de Concepción, Chile