Get to know the Educational Vouchers: The Anarcho-Capitalist Doctrine of María Corina Machado

Published at: 07/06/2024 07:30 PM

María Corina Machado's government plan, of which she has barely commented, is fundamentally the privatization of everything that can be privatized and not so, even the right to study, enshrined in the Constitution of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (CRBV).

The proposal for subsidized education through vouchers comes from the political current called Anarchocapitalism, the same one that is currently implemented in Argentina and which had an important influence from the Austrian school, from which it derives its method of study for the social sciences.

As detailed by commercial engineer José Francisco Cuevas in an article called “Anarchocapitalism, the real alternative” published on the Panampost portal in December 2022, “this doctrine seeks to implement a market logic in the education system, based on which education is seen as a good and seeks to finance demand (students) rather than supply (schools)”.

Under this premise, Cuevas explained that “it is the students who receive the money destined for education and collected by the State through taxes. The total budget is divided among school-age children , thus determining the value of each school check. Families receive these vouchers in order to decide which is the best institution to send children.” It is important to keep in mind that this is a loan that parents acquire and they will have 3 months to pay off their debt.

Through this market logic, schools will have to compete with each other to “attract” as many students as possible. By following this line of thinking, it is believed that schools will strive to stand out from the competition.

The origin of “educational vouchers” and their impact on countries that adopted them

This educational system was proposed during the sixties by the economist Milton Friedman as a liberal alternative that would favor the choice of each parent over the education of their children. Over time, different countries implemented this measure with different results within the privileged class and zero for families with low purchasing power; some of them are Chile, New Zealand, Denmark and Sweden.

In Argentina, as established in the Official Gazette under Resolution 61/2024, the assistance program through educational vouchers consists of “a temporary benefit for families whose children attend privately managed public educational institutions at initial, primary and secondary levels with state funding”. The benefit will consist of a “determined, non-contributory and monthly” sum of money for each child who attends an educational institution that meets the established characteristics, as detailed in Article 3 of the Resolution.

As explained by Martín Nistal, research coordinator of the Argentinian Data Observatory for Education, “the problem is: What characteristics should the student meet? This is a clear exclusion of families that do not meet the requirements they intend to establish.”

Nistal , also co-author of the report “Grants to Private Education: For What and For Whom?” , commented in a dialogue with the news portal Chequeado that “in a voucher system, the subsidy would be directed directly to students' families, of course, it depends on how it is applied, but voucher models are subsidies to students. The State funds a certain amount of voucher for each student and private schools take that voucher as payment. The subsidy is no longer for the school, but for the student.”

In addition, in an interview conducted by Daniel Feierstein with Cinthia Wanschelbaum , he introduced us to the context of the education system of the Milei government and the multiple effects generated by the privatization of this sector. Wanschelbaum, who holds a doctorate in Educational Sciences from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and is currently a senior member at the headquarters of the María Sibylla Merian Center for Advanced Latin American Studies (CALAS) in Mexico, expressed concern when she said that “I am thinking of it more as an extreme government right wing and Argentina immersed in a process of fascistization that dates back to before the Milei government”.

The doctor added that “this emergency of fascist practices began to be seen in Argentina with the Macri government and are becoming more acute with the triumph of Milei. Therefore, the novelty of my research object has to do with being able to analyze what the educational proposals of an extreme right-wing government in Argentina are like, which is something profoundly new and that is where the interesting thing also comes in to compare with other recent historical experiences: Bolsonaro's Brazil and the United States of Trump. What is in sight is that Milei declared a war against public education.”

Wanschelbaum also pointed out that “in Argentina there is a history of subsidies for private education, in other words, that private schools, especially in the city of Buenos Aires, receive a subsidy from the State to pay, mainly part of the salaries of teachers, which further deepens this State action by favoring private schools. And here is something interesting to think about, because we have not yet finished seeing, because of the time he has been in government, if Milei wants the total destruction of the State or wants to use the State for the benefit of the private sector, of business corporations, in favor of the ruling classes and the concentration of capital. He added that “we still don't really know what his project is, capable of both things: destroying the public of the State, the rule of law and rights and using the State to favor the market for the ruling classes”.

Because of this, we, the Venezuelan people, must be attentive to the proposals made by right-wing candidates for the presidential elections to be held on July 28. María Corina Machado explained that her plan for the education sector will be the application of the voucher system, with a clear intention of privatizing this sector.

We must ask ourselves if this model will be the best for Venezuela. Considering that, despite the unilateral sanctions and the criminal blockade, we have seen the advances in inclusion, access, territorialization and quality that the education sector has had in all its grades; the privatization of education is clearly a threat to our people.

AMELYREN BASABE/Mazo News Team