Students Organize Nationwide Protest Against Kast’s Budget Cuts and Rising Living Costs

Original article: “Nos vamos a organizar para defender nuestro futuro”: secundarios convocan protesta nacional contra los recortes de Kast y el costo de la vida Students Organize Nationwide Protest Against Kast’s Budget Cuts and Rising Living Costs High school students have called for a national protest on May 14, in response to budget cuts implemented by the government of José Antonio Kast and the increase in living costs. During their annual meeting this past Saturday, members of the Coordinating Assembly of High School Students (ACES) agreed on the need to mobilize against the precarious agenda of the far-right government, which includes a 3% reduction in the budget for the Ministry of Education and a decision to limit access to free education until the age of 30. This is compounded by a historic rise in gasoline prices, which has直接 impacted Chileans by increasing the cost of food, transportation, and other basic services.

«Today we raise clear responses against a government that continues to undermine education, cutting resources and reducing our opportunities while the cost of living rises,» stated ACES in a message posted on their social media. «They want to take our future away, but we will organize to defend it! », they asserted.

They indicated that during the protest, set for Thursday, May 26, at 11:00 AM in Santiago, they will demand among other issues: «dignified meals, mental health plans, and democratization of our spaces for educational communities to make decisions, as well as free and universal access to education. » «The government’s only aim is to further destabilize education, and it is outrageous that their only response to our demands involves more control and less funding for our educational community,» stated one of the ACES spokespersons in a video, criticizing the lack of clear answers to the demands of the student movement while families face rising living costs as «our schools fall apart«. «Community control is essential because it allows us to address and solve the problems we have as an educational community, as violence cannot be solved with repression, but through more community engagement.

Another demand is that mental health plans be developed solely by the educational community. Furthermore, basic needs like food should be prioritized over educational resources, as should universal free education without barriers to studying,» they added. ACES extended a call to other social organizations to participate in the national protest and join the mobilization against the rising cost of living and the cuts to various ministries enacted by Kast and his finance minister, Jorge Quiroz.