Teachers in Puerto Rico Demand an End to School Closures and Privatization
Wednesday, April 11, 2018
By Sarah Jaffe, Truthout | Interview
SNIPPET:
What has it been like here, connecting with some of the other teachers and their other struggles around the US?Martinez: Well, when we come here, we know that is the same struggle that we are given in Puerto Rico -- not only in the States, but throughout the globe with teachers.
Teachers in the entire continent are fighting against this capitalist 😈 agenda, this neoliberal 🦀 agenda that wants to destroy not only public education, but all the public services in our country.The attack is not only on education. They want to privatize schools, to implement those charters, they want to give the voucher programs, they want to shut down the schools, they want to fire public employees. We are talking about 100,000 employees that will be fired from different agencies.
They want to destroy the University of Puerto Rico, which is a state university, by eliminating campuses. They want to increase the admission fee, they want to increase the cost per credit, per course. They want to cut the pensions from 10 percent to 25 percent [for] people that do not have enough to live.
It is not only an attack on public education....We have heard [of] the same attack against all public sectors; this is a generalized attack. I don't even think it is the
"shock doctrine" anymore. It is
the terror doctrine that they have implemented here in Puerto Rico.... Being here and talking to teachers and listening to the stories -- West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona. We have a great alliance with MORE from New York, and just listening to them, it just renews our energy and it lets us know that this is one struggle of the working class, and that we will have small victories until we triumph entirely. We are not hopeless. We have much hope to go back to our country and give the fight that we have to give.
Article with audio interview and transcript:http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/44127-teachers-in-puerto-rico-demand-an-end-to-school-closures-and-privatization