A reader sent the following observation about parallels between educational developments in Chile under the dictator Pinochet, an admirer of free-market reforms, and in the U.S. today. He writes:
“I have recently been studying the neoliberal privatization of public education in Chile since this is the path we are now on in the USA. Initiated by the dictator Pinochet and encouraged by the same world players who are advocating these changes here, it is frightening and sobering to see how the policies of choice and privatization have destroyed the system there and how, instead of democratizing the system, the system has become a cesspit.
After 30+ years the students and the people are finally taking to the streets in protest and the government is fighting back with an iron fist. If we do continue on this path this is our future.
Sobering, indeed.
Here are jus a few articles that outline the Chilean neoliberal education machine. It is identical to what is being imposed upon us here, with school choice, vouchers, de-professionalization of the teaching profession, high-stakes testing, and profit-seeking in schooling.
http://www.isa-sociology.org/universities-in-crisis/?p=914
http://www.bostonreview.net/world/lili-loofbourow-no-profit?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Isn’t it interesting that Pennsylvania Governor Corbett, the privatizer in chief for ALEC, has a special relationship with Chile.
Corbett Welcomes Growth Of Chilean Fruit Imports | Philadelphia Public Record
Underscoring the importance of his recent trade mission to South America, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett, the Chilean Agricultural Minister Luis Mayol Bouchon and senior Chilean agricultural officials came to Packer Avenue Marine Terminal in South Philadelphia to observe the unloading of the Bahia Castillo, a refrigerated cargo ship carrying thousands of tons of fresh Chilean fruit to the United States and Canada through the Port of Philadelphia gateway.
As part of the event, approximately 10,000 pounds of Chilean fruit were donated to Philabundance, the region’s largest hunger-relief organization, which loaded the fruit for immediate shipment to its local distribution center.
This donation helped Philabundance provide much-needed produce to hundreds of families in need in the Delaware Valley.
Chilean exporters and Holt Logistics have donated more than three million pounds of Chilean fruit to Philabundance and its national partner organization, Feeding America, during the most recent growing season.
“On behalf of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, I would like to extend my sincere thanks to the Chilean Minister of Agriculture for joining me here,” said the Governor. “Our growing trade partnership with Chile provides Pennsylvanians and people throughout the region with year-round access to affordable fresh fruit.
Click here to read the entire post via http://tinyurl.com/kpwq6a9
Chile has imposed that farmers use the pesticides that are illegal in the US in order to produce vastly more fruit to export.
See this recent SF Chronicle article below.
SFgate.com/health/articleChile-s-bitter-fruit-Farmers=pressured=to-use-2921434.php
The Monsanto poisons are damaging human and animal health worldwide. Sadly, American mega agri-business illegally uses these as well. Read all the Consumers Union reports.
I’m sure their wages, benefits, and working conditions are horrible too given the Milton Freedman economic theories the Chilean government has been following for the last thirty years.
correction
SFgate/health/articleChile-s-bitter-fruit-Farmers-pressured-to-use-2921434.php
Let’s not forget that Paul Vallas was an “education consultant” in Chile after the earthquake they had a few years ago. That was at the same time that he was the “full-time” Superintendent of the Recovery School District in New Orleans. I use full-time very loosely as he was rarely in the city of country in his last year there – after he had set his plans in motion and provided lucrative jobs to his friends and contracts for his profit-seeking partner corporations.
We all wondered how he got there considering his aversion to flying – seeing as how he used his state-owned vehicle to drive back and forth to Chicago on the weekends til he got caught.
As most of us know his tactics – which include privatization, excessive standardized testing, bringing lucrative contracts to his friends at Pearson and McGraw-Hill, and deprofessionalizing the teaching profession – we can draw conclusions that he probably contributed to this destruction of public education in that country.
Another troubling thing we must learn from Chile is the consequences of military involvement in civil society. For over two hundred years we have had a society where the military is subordinant to civil society. The Commander in Chief is a civilian, and the military does not involve itself in political matters. This has been the envy of the world.
This is changing in disturbing ways.
http://tinyurl.com/latqqzu
http://tinyurl.com/ah53vdg
Diane, Chile was a test tube for free market/monetarists in the U.S. at the time. I have studied it for years, as it keeps bubbling up as pension reform, health care reform–and new education reform.
Chile offers a veritable treasure to see the negative effects of the same process underway in the U.S. today. Though this book covers a comprehensive view of society, it does offer a useful chapter on “school reform”–“A Nation of Enemies.” One need only look at the years-long mass student protests erupting in Chile now to see the backlash of these radical policies.
Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, New Zealand, etc. – these are just a few of the countries where the corporate-state education reform agenda has reared its head. When the majority of America wakes up to what the agenda is all about and how it is being played here, then we might stand a chance from learning from folks who have seen it firsthand years ago and counteract the agenda appropriately. http://www.scribd.com/doc/106337306/THE-CHICAGO-PUBLIC-SCHOOLS-ALLERGIC-TO-ACTIVISM
Thank you for the links. This info is very eerie. It is hard to believe that a country was converted over to the “choice in education” garbage. You can see the effects right now in the US. Go study urban charters. See if “choice” is really real. Go and look at the curriculum. Ask yourself if you would want your kid in a school where an unqualified CEO gets to rule like a dictator. Ask yourself if you’d like to send your kid to a school where the curriculum is so narrow that they aren’t given the real choices to study a variety of subjects. No, no that won’t work. The CEO needs to make a profit and will rip-off the students and the community. It is unbelievable that politicians in this country have absolutely sold out their own people and promoted this garbage (USDOE). The articles clearly outline the “reform” movement that is happening now in the US. It’s a shame that Obama embraced the philosophies of the clueless Friedman. What a bunch of un-American junk.
Truth, justice and the American way. Really, people once believed in this.
Dr. Jill Pinkney Pastrana of the University of Wisconsin has a presentation called — Resisting the Neoliberal Attack on Chile´s Public Schools and Teacher Unions.
Here’s the link to the PowerPoint file: http://aeratwtusig.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/files/2011/05/Pinkney-Pastrana.ppt [Please let me know if the link to the file doesn’t work.]
He provides a framework that outlines the neoliberal policies as they relate to Chile’s education system, however, what’s more interesting is that you can easily fill in their (Chile’s) framework with the educational policies and practices currently being implemented in the US. That is, the so called educational “reformers” push for the privatization of public education.
Also, Dr. O’Malley has been working on the education in Chile as a Fulbright. Here’s his contact info: http://www.txstate.edu/clas/Educational-Leadership/Program-Faculty/Michael-P-O-Malley.html
President Obama has opposed public funds to private & parochial schools. He has successfully advocated for an expansion of health care opportunities for low & moderate income families (the first such successful expansion of this in decades). He has promoted high quality early childhood education, expansion of loans and grants for middle and low income students, and retaining a low interest rate for college loans.
So now we are equating this with what a dictator did in Chile?
Yep. While Chile followed the American privatization model of Milton Friedman, corporate “reformers’ here had to figure out another approach, since so many Americans are against vouchers. And, it turns out that vouchers are not even needed to privatize public education here.
Just shutting down public schools, giving those buildings away to private charter management companies and/or providing them with funds to build new schools, and paying for students in charters has been working just fine to speed the privatization of education in this country a la Obama over the past 5 years. A dream come true for neo-liberals in both parties, but something the GOP never could have gotten away with themselves. It took a black president who pretended to care about the 99%.
Chile is a democracy; the Chileans rejected the dictator Pinochet in 1988. However, the free market neoliberal education policies continue to persist there today. These free market neoliberal education policies — regardless of “what a dictator did” based on the recommendations of an American — mirror the unsuccessful corporate-based reform efforts in the U.S.
“[Obama] has promoted high quality early childhood education.” you said. Though how can such a “high quality early childhood education” program improve the kindergarten readiness of low-income children by placing 18 kids ages 3-5 in a classroom with only a couple of teachers? The design of the “high quality early childhood education” program appears flawed from both a developmental and an academic standpoint.