This article is about student protestors' encounters with police forces who were ordered to break up the students' demonstrations. The students have been protesting for many months now over privatization of education in Chile. Students demand education to be more "accessible" and privatization limits the ability of poorer families ability to send their children to school.
I believe the Chilean government is only shooting themselves in the foot by attempting to privatize education. Sure for now it might save the government some extra money and force parents to pay for their children's education. Down the road however, they are going to realize this actually costs them MORE than it benefits them as they are going to have a whole generation of children who were unable to attend school due to cost limitations. A generation of undereducated youth will be a nightmare for the Chilean government as they will have a workforce that is unskilled and will be a heavy burden on the welfare state. Therefore, the government's attempt to privatize education (and basically take away the right of education from poorer families by taking away their ability to benefit from public education) is an ill-advised move indeed. Sending in the police to forcefully stop these demonstrations is just icing on the- human-rights-abuse-cake.
It's really interesting (and appalling) t see how many governments choose to take this route. When it comes to saving money, things like education funding are the first to go. I fully agree with you: this is a very stupid move. They see only the short term gains without realizing that, in the long run, they are digging their own graves.
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