Why are Argentines taking to the streets to defend public education?

Last week, mass protests erupted in Argentina. Thousands took to the streets carrying banners, textbooks and diplomas to defend public education amid budget cuts in one of the largest protests in the last two decades.

Protesters say far-right President Javier Milei’s budget freeze effectively cuts public spending amid Argentina's surging inflation, which was recorded as the highest in the world in March.

Milei, who came to power pledging to cut public spending and deregulate the economy, says his measures – which are facing stiff pushback from his political detractors, workers’ unions, the media and different economic sectors – are "the guarantee of a sustainable and consistent path to end inflation forever in Argentina".

Last week’s mass protest was organised by the University of Buenos Aires School of Economics (UBA) - a public university – and labour unions, backed by left-leaning parties and attended by those from the ideological divide, including conservative lawmakers, commentators, and employees at private universities.

An estimated 500,000 people mobilised in Buenos Aires' historic Plaza de Mayo to express their concerns for the future of public education.

"I was part of the massive call (to mobilise) that took place in Buenos Aires and in the interior of the country, protesting the critical situation that Argentine public universities are going through," Priscila Palacio, a Professor and Senior Researcher at the University of Buenos Aires School of Economics, tells TRT World.

After universities recently declared a financial emergency due to the approved budget, UBA officials say the institution could close within a few months unless more funding is found.

After the protest, Palacio says she glimpsed the widespread "unease" among students, teachers and demonstrators.

Catalyst for development

Many in Argentina regard public education, which is free of charge and is attended by over two million students, as the catalyst for the country's development.

Without a rescue plan, the UBA's potential closure could leave 380,000 stranded mid-degree.

Palacio explains that the country's university system has more than sixty publicly administered universities and university institutes, which serve around 80 percent of the students.

The UBA has a long-standing academic tradition, producing 17 presidents. Today, it houses 13 faculties, six university hospitals, some secondary education establishments, and cultural institutes.

"Due to the economic policies that the Milei government has been implementing, which aim to reduce state spending to achieve a fiscal surplus, the budget of public universities (which depend on funding from the State) has been frozen, in some cases at 2023 values," Palacio explains.

The freeze coincides with high interannual inflation, which registered a staggering 287.9 percent between April 2023 and March 2024 and soaring costs of public services like electricity, which in some cases went above 500 percent.

These factors have impacted the costs of running universities, says Palacio.

As a result, the UBA classrooms and hallways have gone without lighting, and teachers have reduced administrative tasks like printing out materials, she says.

Palacio, a Professor who holds the prestigious position of Chair of General Economic and Social History, says inflation has also impacted their salaries.

In some cases, professors' wages have been slashed by 35 percent in the last quarter, to around $150 in the worst-case scenario, resulting in some picking up extra work.

With 20 years of teaching experience, Palacio says the cuts have hampered her critical research.

"As a researcher and director of research projects at the UBA, I have to face a severe reduction (in real terms) of subsidies intended for financing research since some items are expressed in 2023 prices," she says.

"Some funds that university researchers receive are not enough to cover basic expenses required for academic activity," Palacio adds, referencing bibliographies, supplies and conference costs.

While professors made their voices heard, the university's situation has touched a nerve among Argentines like Mateo Abelenda, a 31-year-old student and aspiring musician finishing his degree in composition at the National University of the Arts (UNA).

He sees public education as a "great symbol and a source of great pride" that, despite its challenges, stands out when training professionals across different sectors.

"The fact that it is free and of quality allows various sectors to choose to train at state universities that have great international reputation and that in turn develops world-renowned knowledge and research," Abelenda tells TRT World.

He says many South Americans come to Argentina to study, where it is typically "more economically accessible" than some of their home countries.

Resistance

Abelenda rejects Milei's inflation argument, insisting Argentina has had ongoing problems with inflation.

The student says inflation has been an issue for different governments since its return to democracy in 1983 and has a stark warning for the far-right leader amid his austerity push.

"If Milei continues down this path, there will be resistance in the streets that may take on the characteristics of the rebellions in Chile during the (Sebastian) Pinera government or in Colombia before the change of government, to highlight two processes of popular rebellions in recent years in the region," Abelenda says.

Palacio explains the budgetary crisis facing public university education in Argentina risks becoming subsumed by broader societal demands if the imbalance between price and wage increases (and state funds) is not rectified in the medium term.

"The government faces the challenge of redefining some of its public policies, which were the focus of its media publicity (popularly characterised as the 'chainsaw' and 'blender') if it does not want to erode its own electoral base, considering the fragility of the ruling party's political structure," she says.

However, some students appear to have distinct views concerning education in Argentina.

Milei garnered 70 percent of the youth vote in November, and Fernando Tosto, a 29-year-old economics student at the UBA, supports the self-styled anarcho-capitalist president’s approach to education.

The resident of Buenos Aires who attended private schools before the UBA says public education is not "free" but comes from citizen's taxes.

As Milei has sought to substantiate his wholesale cuts, he has claimed that publicly run universities are institutes which "are used for shady business and to indoctrinate", something that resonated with Tosto and that he claims to have witnessed.

More widely, the UBA student says that the economic minister Luis Caputo is doing a good job but believes that public education, particularly "university funds," is becoming politicised.

"What the government is asking for is that audits be carried out to see and show how the money from taxpayers to public universities is spent," Tosto tells TRT World, adding he believes some universities will not comply.

Tosto, who says his early education was religious in nature, sees this underlying political motivation as fuelling the protests.

"I believe that the majority of the protests were taken over by opportunistic politicians from opposition parties who took advantage of using this protest to carry out a political campaign and attack the Milei government," he says.

However, not all those from across the public education system agree.

High school teacher Cristian Cejas says the widespread challenges in the public education system are nothing new and that Milei has prioritised other concerns over education.

"The Milei government has begun a fight against it (inflation) through what it calls the 'shrinking of the State'; entailing cutting public spending, massive layoffs of workers, destruction of ministries and their conversion to secretariats," he tells TRT World.

Milei has underscored the need to reach zero deficit, which also involves cutting subsidies.

However, public education has meant that some, like 35-year-old Emanuel Franco, a local government employee in the city of Reconquista in Argentina's northeastern province, became the first in his family to attend university.

He says he is "convinced" that public education must be defended, describing it as the "basis" of a country.

"It (public education) goes beyond access to education; it is the training of professionals that drive the country; it is the basis of development and generation of opportunities (upward mobility)," Franco tells TRT World.

Luciano Cogoma received a public education from early childhood to high school before graduating in journalism at a private institute and has recently been laid off.

The 36-year-old father sees the current policy-making around public education as firmly economically driven, insisting this administration does not believe in "education as a right, but as a business."

He says Argentines have to budget the costs around inflation, while the minimum wage does not stretch far enough amid Milei's austerity push.

Amid the anger, Milei conceded a 70-percent increase in funding for public universities' operating expenses in March, followed by another 70 per cent in May and a one-off grant to university hospitals.

However, critics say operating expenses exclude teacher salaries, which is about 90 percent of a university budget.

While Argentina experiences a 50 percent poverty rate, Cogoma takes a dim view of Milei's "anarcho-capitalist experiment," insisting there is funding.

However, Milei continues to pledge to tighten state coffers and reduce government spending. His administration has already invested in defence, inking a $300 million deal for 24 F-16 jets.

In April, Argentina also announced a joint military base with the US. After the US pledged "$40 million in Foreign Military Financing (FMF) to support Argentina's defence modernisation," insisting that the move is "reserved for important partners."

Cogoma now sees life in Argentina under Milei as beginning to shift radically.

"A country that produces nuclear reactors, develops space satellites, and has five Nobel Prize winners cannot de-fund its education unless there is a deliberate plan to become a colony again," he says.

"Today, it is the turn of the universities, who raised their voice. But tomorrow, we will see the pensioners whose incomes are being brutally cut, companies laying off workers, community kitchens not receiving food, and so on."