Original article: Presupuesto 2026: Profesores califican como «amenazante y autoritaria» glosa que disminuye recursos a Servicios Locales de Educación Pública

2026 Budget: Teachers Call Cuts to Local Public Education Services «Threatening and Authoritarian»

In a letter addressed to President Gabriel Boric, the Teachers’ Association expressed deep concern over budget cuts to Local Public Education Services as outlined in the 2026 Budget Law.

Mario Aguilar, the union’s president, explained that the contentious item is glosa number 2, which specifies the maximum number of teaching and non-teaching staff that each Local Public Education Service (SLEP) must have.

According to Aguilar, this measure «does not align with reality and is purely an economic adjustment that fails to meet the needs of educational communities in each local service. This is our main complaint.»

“There is a strictly economic criterion that does not take into account, for instance, the situation of rural schools or children with special educational needs,” emphasized the teachers’ representative.

«Threatening and Authoritarian»

The teaching community warned that this item «forces executive directors, under the pressure of the Ministry of Finance’s Budget Directorate, to carry out mass layoffs. Failure to comply will lead to threats of their own dismissal.»

«It explicitly states: ‘this adjustment must be made between the publication of this law, that is, December, and the start of the 2026 school year in March. Non-compliance will result in the cause indicated in letter E of Article 23 of Law 21040.’ This means that the Dipres is not only interfering in pedagogical technical matters that it has no authority over in this item, but also threatens the executive directors—if they do not execute the mass layoffs they are being ordered to, they themselves will be fired,” denounced Mario Aguilar.

“We find this unacceptable, and that is what we articulated to the President of the Republic in this letter, hoping he will rectify it. It is not characteristic of a government that claims to be close to workers and socially sensitive to resort to the threat of mass layoffs to make economic adjustments without considering the reality and pedagogical needs of each service,” the leader asserted.

“We find it authoritarian and threatening. It is inappropriate to proceed in this manner. We have spoken with various parliamentarians requesting them to reject this, and we have received good reception across all political sectors. We trust that the President of the Republic will have enough sensitivity to order the removal of this item, as it is inhumane, threatening, and authoritarian,” concluded the teachers’ leader.

El Ciudadano