The ruling party reached consensus with the opposition in Deputies and is moving forward to declare education as an essential service

The Libertad Avanza continues negotiating in the Congress and, after reaching an agreement with the dialogue opposition blocks in the Education Commission of the Chamber of Deputies, managed to impose its majority opinion to declare education as an “Essential Strategic Service.” The initiative involves guaranteeing 180 days of classes in the country’s public schools and preventing students from losing school days due to teacher strikes.

The opinion – which gathered 18 signatures – was formed based on the initiatives promoted by Alejandro Finocchiaro (PRO), Carla Carrizo (UCR-Caba) and Maximiliano Ferraro (Civic Coalition-Caba), and was ready to be treated at the venue.

The central points of the majority opinion seek declare Education as an Essential Strategic Service at all levels and modalities included in compulsory schooling, to guarantee the comprehensive protection and promotion of children’s rights, girls and teenagers in the effective completion of the complete school year.

In this sense, he points out that The National State and the provinces must guarantee the exercise of the right to education throughout the school year school during school days affected by measures of direct, indirect action, strike or teaching and non-teaching strike and They must establish a system of mandatory minimum guards.

Crosses in the Education Commission between the ruling party and Peronism

The commission meeting had moments of strong tension. The crossings and accusations crossed between deputies of the PRO, LLA and Unión por la Patria forced the president of the body, Alejandro Finocchiaro, threatened to suspend the meeting.

The PRO deputy himself said: “Education must provide our children with freedom and that is why our project declares education as an essential strategic service”, and noted that “the State has the main and non-delegable responsibility for provide the means to guarantee a comprehensive educationpermanent, free and of quality”.

In line with the Macrista deputy, Santiago Santurio (LLA-Buenos Aires) argued that “in recent years education has degraded.” “We have been going backwards in literacy. It is important that the ruling be addressed so that education is an essential service,” he emphasized.

From the Civic Coalition, Maximiliano Ferraroagreed and pointed out that “the proposal for the opinion It is a balance that attempts to resolve the tension of two rights that are in conflict., there is no type of absolute right in our constitutional, normative framework. So We search and find a wording that balances and, in some way, it removes the tension of two rights in conflict, but one right that we want to value: the right of the best interest of children and adolescents in our country.”

However, the head of the Unión por la Patria bloc, Germán Martínez, crossed the ruling party and those close to him and complained that no actions had been taken. informative meetings. Furthermore, he reported that “Strange things are happening with commission transfersand some are unnecessary, especially with those of us who are opponents of the Government.

Representative Romina del Pla (FIT-Buenos Aires) also opposed the initiative and expressed that “the purpose of these projects “It’s a giant hoax.” and pointed out that “if they want to guarantee education They have to secure their financing“. Finally, he stated that “families suffer from the policies of the different governments, not teacher strikes.”

Also from the opposition, representative Blanca Osuna (Unión por la Patria-Buenos Aires) regretted that “in a context of defunding of educationand a president who declares that he is coming to destroy the State, and the school is the State, the officialdom ruled from a restricted perspective of essentiality that prevents teachers’ right to strike“.

“The question is inevitable: How can they define essential that which they want to destroy? The essentiality, as stated in the opinion of the ruling party, restricts the possibility of requesting improvements in educational quality that also needs better working conditions,” he stated.