Students in Chile rioting over public education.

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http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2011/08/201189222421236242.html


"The time has come to fight, not to negotiate," some students said in their banners. Demonstrators walked past the Dario Salas School, where three minors have been on hunger strike for 21 days to support student demands. Chilean student protests started three months ago and have already led to a change of minister. Last week, close to 900 people were arrested and 90 police officers were injured in student protests. In recent months, hundreds of thousands of people have poured onto the streets to support the movement, whose rallies have drawn the biggest crowds for protests in Chile since the end of the military dictatorship in 1990.

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Students want the state to take over the public school system, where 90 per cent of the country's 3.5 million students are educated. It is currently run by local authorities, which protesters say results in deep inequalities. Chile has the highest per capita income of any country in Latin America, but the Andean nation also has the most skewed income disparity in the region.

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Students also want more affordable higher education: most Chilean college students take out loans to go to private for-profit universities because public colleges are few and underfunded. "I'm marching because I have two children and I can't make ends meet; they are going to be in debt for years" when they go to college, Graciela Hernandez, one of the protesters, told AFP.

VIDEO OF RIOTS AND INTERVIEWS WITH STUDENT LEADERS AT LINK