What is the plan proposed by Boric to change Chilean university financing?

What is the plan proposed by Boric to change Chilean university financing?
What is the plan proposed by Boric to change Chilean university financing?

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SANTIAGO, Chile.– Campaign promise, fundamental axis of the story that mobilized him during his time of university protest in 2011 and an issue with enormous economic implications. The president of Chile, Gabriel Boricannounced a new financing system for higher education and the end of the State Guaranteed Credit (CAE)a tool that since its creation in 2005, generated a debt of 11.9 billion dollars in public coffersbut which allowed thousands of students to enter university.

On national television, the president reported the night before last about the measure that seeks to provide solutions to more than 1.2 million Chileans who today are delinquent. “This is one of the most heartfelt flags of the student movement of which we were part at the time. We are keeping our promise and doing it responsibly, and in a fair and progressive manner.”said Boric.

Appointed by the executive “law of reorganization and forgiveness of educational debts and new financing for higher education”the project was signed by the president for submission to the Chamber of Deputies.

The project has three main axes: initial forgiveness, reorganization of remaining debt and creation of a new public financing mechanism called Public Financing for Higher Education (FES).

“Today, the CAE is a problem for all of Chile: for those who pay it with great effort month after month, for those who have not been able to do so, for those who could not even finish their studies and are still in debt, and it is also a problem for the fiscal coffers. And when problems affect society as a whole, It is the urgent task of politics to seek a solution and correct“Boric stressed.

A total of 1,219,395 Chileans received this credit between 2006 and 2023. According to the figures provided by the government itself, of that total, 27% are in the study or grace stage, while 73% are in the payment stage, a universe that would benefit from the measure.

The forgiveness plan consists of four stages. The first, called initial forgiveness, will be applied according to three variables: the academic condition of the debtor, that is, whether he has already graduated or interrupted his studies; if it is up to date with the payment, and the number of paid installments of the credit with respect to its total term.

Likewise, the president explained that a new instrument will be created that will replace the CAE, the FES.

“The vast majority of FES beneficiaries will not have to disburse resources or go into debt, as happens today with the university credit system, thus eliminating the stress associated with paying or acquiring debts during this very important stage of life,” he explained. Boric.

“The banks will not participate in this new financing instrument. With the FES, there will be no room for speculation, abuse or profit, but rather fair remuneration for the training received. At the same time, we will increase standards of transparency and accountabilityallowing citizens to know how the resources of all Chileans are spent,” he noted.

The measure generated questions from various sectors.

“The truth is that the proposal is still extremely vague and the president just presented it”José Joaquín Brunner, director of the UDP Doctorate in Higher Education and former minister of the Concertación governments, told the nation that he made a comparison with what Javier Milei has proposed and the famous vouchers.

“There is no voucher here like what you wanted to propose.” [Javier] Milei, what you have is that you pay for your study with money from your pocket or you take out a student loan, which is not a voucher, but rather a credit like the one you use to buy a house, but here you do it to access the higher education system. That is the Chilean system. AND In no case did the president say that we were going to changeFor example, that we were going to make universal gratuity in the Argentine style. No. He simply said ‘we are going to condone some people and we are going to create a new instrument,’” the academic commented.

For Mario Herrera, a political scientist at the University of Talca, the decision could have an electoral effect in the face of the next municipal elections on October 26 and 27. “The main implication is that a campaign commitment is half fulfilledone of Boric’s central commitments, and which also speaks to his hardest voters, and it is the commitment to end the CAE, because only a very minor percentage of the people who are currently paying the CAE will be able to access a complete remission. That is important especially in view of the elections we have in October, which are elections where mayors who are from their sector see their position at risk or threatened and who have had certain difficulties in being able to retain that mayor’s seat.”

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