In light of the new Free Trade Agreement signed by U.S. President Barack Obama that opens up Colombia to the influx of U.S. capital and to the influence of the economy and military, Colombia has begun privatizing services in recent years. Taking initiative from the U.S. private education model in 2011, Colombia’s president Juan Manuel Santos and the education minister pushed to incorporate a reform to the Education Law 30 that eliminates public universities. While Public schools are primarily free and reinvest every peso they do receive to the school, private institutions have investors that receive profits and impose high tuition fees on students. Sarah Yaneth Fernandez, professor for the university of Antioquia expresses concerns representative of a wide range of teachers claiming that “while public education has a social interest. Private organizations have personal profit interests.”
Students articulated this reform would make education unaffordable to the masses. They speculated poor students who did take out loans would not be able to pay them back due to the devastated Colombian economy. Additionally, students worried that with this shift the government would begin prioritizing the math and sciences while defunding the humanities. In response to the legislation students demanded “Immediate withdrawal of the proposed law, giving guarantees for the drafting of an alternative proposal together with all sections of the universities, and guarantees for the exercising of democratic freedoms, which implies the demilitarization of the university campuses.”
Students articulated this reform would make education unaffordable to the masses. They speculated poor students who did take out loans would not be able to pay them back due to the devastated Colombian economy. Additionally, students worried that with this shift the government would begin prioritizing the math and sciences while defunding the humanities. In response to the legislation students demanded “Immediate withdrawal of the proposed law, giving guarantees for the drafting of an alternative proposal together with all sections of the universities, and guarantees for the exercising of democratic freedoms, which implies the demilitarization of the university campuses.”