This reaction paper summarizes and evaluates an article about educational reforms in Chile proposed by President Michelle Bachelet. The reforms aim to dismantle the market-based education policies established during Pinochet's dictatorship by ending for-profit schools and tuition, and eliminating admission selection processes. The author of the article supports these reforms and argues they are needed to address issues like discrimination against low-income students and low educational attainment. However, the reaction paper notes that the article only presents one side of the debate and lacks analysis of alternative viewpoints and the reforms' potential budget impact.

1. Reaction Paper
Teacher: Iris Roa.
Name: Francisco Oñate, Daniel Pinto.
Subject: Communicative competences.
Date: October 6th, 2014.

2. Summary
The article written by Cristian Bellei and published in “The Conversation” on Tuesday
20th of May, 2014, affirms that Michelle Bachelet has sent to the Congress a set of reforms
that will contribute to dismantle the market-based policies about Education regulations, and
now will be financed by an overhaul of the tax system. All this as a result of the student
movement started for the first time in 2006 and then in 2011, which has hitherto been active.
This researcher explains that the main focus are the end of for-profit schools, the end of
selection as a way to admit students, and the end of any payment in elementary and high
school.
The author then explained these three principles of the reform deeply, starting with
the restriction on for-profit educational establishments. According to him, the voucher
system, which was implemented during Pinochet’s dictatorship, is a source for this type of
schools and universities. He also adds that there is plenty of evidence showing how some
new Universities find their way to recover profit, produced by illegal practices with
undercover benefits such as contracting services or leasing buildings through related
companies. Finally, Belli makes reference to the selection process that for-profit schools
perform, explaining that this practice is highly related to discrimination against students from
low-income families, and also make the connection between for-profit schools and low
educational attainment from students.

3. Evaluation
This article describes clearly what the educational issues involved in this reform are,
giving solid arguments explaining why Bachelet’s proposal might be the solution. At the
same time it explains the background of educational problems, which exist since her
previous administration; and help us to understand the rejection from students to our current
president, produced mainly for a radical change in the purpose of this reform. In few words,
Cristian Bellei has set up the context of this contingent piece of news effectively.
The structure of the article allows us to easily follow the ideas of the author. Each
piece of the article is clearly divided in the topics that Belli consider relevant, and help the
reader to have a better understanding of the situation. A clear example of this is that now
we are aware of more details about the ways that for-profit education has been working in
our country; likewise, the measures that are keys in Bachelet’s proposal that was send to
the parliament. Overall, we can say that the article accomplish its function. It gives
information, in a simple way, of details of the topic that have not been commonly spoken.
As we can see in this text, this author is supporting the general idea of Bachelet’s
proposal. His arguments are clear and convincing; nevertheless, there is no counter
argument from the opposition party or from students and teachers. As far as we concern,
this variety of standpoints allow us to understand deeply the discussion itself, interests
involved from each part and who are the real beneficiaries of this possible agreement.
Another unanswered question is the analysis of the probable budget, which is the main point
of discussion and the real evidence to show the nature of this reform.
In spite of the fact that the article is well written and is simple enough to understand,
did not have a greater impact in our opinion on the subject. As we said before, the position
of the author is clear; however, there is an important lac of counterarguments that we
considered to be important. Therefore while President Bachelet seems to be finally working
with the government on a reform that might be a feasible solution, we can not forget the fact
that it took more than 6 years for the government to finally face this problem, which is why
we continue with our skeptical position on what will really get to end of this conflict.
Even though the article shows just one point of view, it has evidenced that this issue
is urgent, and that the problems described, which sometimes are not noticed as obviously
as we think, are crucial if we desire a real progress of our educational system. Therefore,
this writer has encouraged us to investigate a little more about this topic to be aware of this
current situation, because we, as teachers, have the duty to be informed and to have an
opinion based on well-built arguments.