00:00In Chile, $17,000 a month for half a working day was the salary that the former Minister
00:06of Education of Sebastián Piñera had assigned to a private university, uncovering the scandal
00:11about business in education.
00:13From Santiago, Chile, our colleague Paola Dragni with the details.
00:18They are two sides of the same coin.
00:21The Chilean Teachers Association will walk for three days in a procession to Congress
00:25that seeks to draw the government's attention to different issues such as the teachers'
00:30historical debt and the school coexistence bill, among many others.
00:36We have the issue of public education that is falling apart.
00:39It is no exaggeration to say it.
00:42There are places where it is literally falling apart.
00:44Roofs are collapsing, schools are flooded, there are unsanitary bathrooms, there are
00:49plagues of mice.
00:51This is true at the municipal level as well as in the local services.
00:55Public education that have not solved many of the problems.
01:02A government ironically headed by former student leaders who seem to have forgotten their old
01:07demands.
01:08Everything remains the same in school and university education.
01:13The private world does not let go of the business and the scandal with the former Education
01:18Minister of Sebastián Piñera, Marcela Cubillos, is the tip of the iceberg.
01:23Mrs. Cubillos is not untouchable.
01:28That is why we have asked the Comptroller's Office for a pronouncement regarding the actions
01:32she carried out when she was Minister of Education, because her argument of trying to protect
01:37herself behind her freedom is not an argument that shields her from having to answer to
01:41state institutions and in this case to the Comptroller's Office for State Resources.
01:51Marcela Cubillos, when she was Minister of Education, reportedly transferred close to
01:57one and a half million dollars to San Sebastián University, where she later worked as a professor
02:03with a salary of $17,000 a month for half a day.
02:07And she is proud of it.
02:10This is a private university that has autonomy.
02:13The students that enter the San Sebastián University choose a private project, a project
02:18without free education.
02:19What does the left want?
02:21Again, that all universities should be state universities and that the left should be the
02:25ones to define what is taught, who teaches, how it is taught.
02:29This does not exist in Chile because we said no two years ago in the rejection.
02:35She was a key face during the campaign for the change of constitution, sharpening the
02:40message against public education but without opposing state contributions.
02:45Now, it is clearer why.
02:49We are concerned about this $1,500 million that were transferred to the San Sebastián
02:55University, which looks more like the University of San Sebastián Piñera, because it has
03:00become the paymaster of countless officials and collaborators of this government.
03:08Practically all the right-wing politicians who were with the late former president are
03:12now in this university company.
03:17There is a legal issue that is clearly being seen in the judicial system and the superintendents
03:21of education, which is also important to us.
03:25And the university has had no response to us, the students, due to the same case of
03:29Marcela Cubillos.
03:31This case was just the straw that broke the camel's back.
03:37The students of this university are outraged.
03:41They denounce academic and infrastructural shortcomings.
03:44But in the free market, marketing seems to be the most important thing.
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