Thousands demonstrate over Venezuela education law

Source: AP

Police dispersed opponents of President Hugo Chavez's government on Saturday as thousands demonstrated both for and against an education law that critics fear will lead to political indoctrination in schools.

Officers fired tear gas, a water cannon and rubber bullets to scatter opposition marchers as they tried to break through a police barrier. Protesters including Miguel Rivero, a 43-year-old lawyer, said they requested but did not receive permission to march to the National Assembly.

"It's totally unjust," Rivero said, wiping tear gas from his eyes. "This repression is totally unnecessary."

Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami accused the protesters of "inciting violence" by throwing rocks and other objects at police.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090822/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_venezuela_education_law

This sounds....wow.....

The law approved by the largely pro-Chavez National Assembly last week orders schools to base curricula on "the Bolivarian Doctrine" — a reference to ideals espoused by 19th-century independence hero Simon Bolivar, such as national self-determination and Latin American unity.

...now where was that?

Oh yeah, Texas.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4026169&mesg_id=4026169

It's strange, though...on that thread, no one supports the idea of government dictating what can and cannot be in a history book. ;)

What's wrong with national self-determination/sovereignty and Latin American Unity?

to exploit and subjugate the people while taking over all the factors and means of production, including private ownership of all natural resources like water, and of course, OIL), if a Bolivarian Revolution is successful? The fascists will have to spend countless millions of dollars and years of struggle in order to take back the government, the land, and the resources for their own profit making interest. Heaven forbid that institution of the radical Bolivarian Doctrine prevent these wealthy fascists from exploiting Venezuela in order to get even more filthy rich.

That said, there's nothing wrong with national self-determination/sovreignity and Latin American Unity, unless, of course, you are a fascist.

Actually, It's not that scary at all.

Any and all curricula throughout the world are "based" on some ideology or other. It might just as well be "the Bolivarian Doctrine" as "the Doctrine of Corporate Imperialism".

Actually, from what Ive read, "the Bolivarian Doctrine" seems much more equitable and humane. Why not teach its tenets as opposed to those of any other ideology?

You're absolutely right on the Bolivarian Doctrine. Thank you for your post.

1+1 = Viva Chavez! :eyes:

so you're just yammering about that of which you know nothing.

Three R's and all that.

on a section or two. :)

The lessons of history, social studies and civics will always be couched in the values of a given society.

but the foundation of learning is the 3 R's.

North Korea has many faults, but seeking to control resources, labor and markets throughout the world in pursuit of profit is not among them.

:rofl:

Government supporter Adriana Lombardi — one of thousands who marched peacefully across town in favor of the measure — said she believes the law will mean her 3-year-old son will gain an improved understanding of Venezuelan history.

so the US and Ven. media could blame it on the Chavistas (during the coup)

Frak them!

lol

So transparent. I'd love to see pix of the two contingents. :)

you'd be able to get to pics of the two contingents.

:shrug:

Venezuelan Education Law: Socialist Indoctrination or Liberatory Education?

August 21st 2009, by James Suggett - Venezuelanalysis.com

Venezuelan opposition activists allege that the new Education Law, which the National Assembly passed unanimously shortly after midnight on August 14th following an extended legislative session, is unconstitutional, anti-democratic, politicizes the classroom, threatens the family and religion, and will allow the state to take children away from their parents for indoctrination. Are they correct?

In defense of the law, Education Minister Hector Navarro told several national media outlets that the opposition's claims are not only incorrect, they "form part of a campaign that seeks to generate fear in the population so they will be against the Law."

Before and after the law's passage, demonstrations both for and against the law turned into violent confrontations in which tear gas and other objects were thrown, journalists were attacked, and the police were deployed to maintain the public order. Opponents of the law, mainly adversaries of the government of President Hugo Chavez, vowed to sabotage the law's implementation with acts of disobedience in schools, and others announced they would challenge the law in the courts. Proponents of the law, mainly Chavez supporters, formed organizations to assure the law is applied.

To understand the ongoing controversy, it is helpful to carefully examine the following three questions: What are the fundamental tenets of the new Education Law? What are the main critiques of the law, and are they correct? And, what are the major challenges facing the Venezuelan educational system now that the law has been passed?

The Law

The official title of the law is, "Organic Education Law," meaning it has the highest legal stature under the constitution and is required by the constitution to uphold constitutional principles.

At the law's foundation is the concept that the state has the responsibility to ensure that all citizens have a high quality education, free of charge, from childhood through the undergraduate university level. This concept of the "Educator State" (Estado Docente) is introduced in Article 5, which says the state must guarantee education "as a universal human right and a fundamental, inalienable, non-renounceable social duty, and a public service... governed by the principles of integrality, cooperation, solidarity, attentiveness, and co-responsibility." The law also requires "progressive annual growth" in education spending as a percentage of GDP.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/4734

Hah, here in Chicago the mayor's pet financial scam is to progressively take money away from schools and give it to realtors and investment companies.

to the network media reports of the US town hall health care shenanigans, all full of exaggeration, misinformation and lies. I'm sure the Venezuelans will see through the bull crap, they haven't been taken in by any of it so far.

Never underestimate good counseling, it's good for the well being.

Because they hate any right granted to the people.

And we can always count on someone posting here to buy in. Like clockwork.

it looks as if there's more than a few Venezuelans that don't care for this piece of legislation.

But what do they know, eh? They only live there.

they only live there.

Didn't you read your own OP?

Heaven forfend that all Venezuelans be granted education as a right, Zorro. That's downright democratic and we can't have that in Venezuela.

That's apparently what your hero wants to change.

What part of "universal education" is unclear to you?

Would that be based on your vast exposure to the Venezuelan educational system?

You have no leg to stand on as you try to vilify universal education in Venezuela. Well done, progressive!

I would presume Venezuela to have already instituted similar policies.

However, based on your expert experience with the Venezuelan educational system, I now understand that education in Venezuela is only for rich white kids. I didn't know that.

its what is being required.

An education bill signed into law in mid-August by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will remove religious education from the nation's schools, said Caracas Cardinal Jorge Urosa Savino. Government critics called the law's rapid approval process -- it was passed by the National Assembly and signed into law in the same week -- unconstitutional and said that the government did not consider outside opinions. One clause of the new law, which covers all levels of education and both public and private institutions, requires education to have a "lay character ... in all circumstances" and leaves religious education to families. The cardinal said the new law "does not take Urosa's God out of the schools, but takes out religion, a right which is in the constitution."

http://www.thebostonpilot.com/Briefs.asp?ID=5538

In recent months, powerful opposition groups, including the association of rectors of Venezuela's major public and private universities, all major opposition parties, much of the privately owned media, some teachers unions, and the Catholic Church waged a vicious media campaign against the law, in some cases asserting that the law will bring the country a step closer to totalitarianism.

Opponents alleged that the law is anti-democratic because it was not subject to enough public consultation. They also said it threatens religious education and the family, and politicizes the classroom. In June, radio commentators falsely reported that two articles in the law would permit the state to take children between the ages of 3 and 20 away from their parents for socialist indoctrination.

In response to the allegations, Education Minister Hector Navarro fervently denounced the lie that the state will be permitted to sequester children, and repeatedly pointed out that the procedures taken by the National Assembly for the discussion and passage of the law were fully in line with the national constitution.

The Minister said the opposition's claims are not only incorrect, they "form part of a campaign that seeks to generate fear in the population."

Also in response to the allegations, several National Assembly legislators and some less intense opponents of the law cited numerous articles in the law which support the role of the family as part of the educational community, establish that religious education must be carried out privately and not in public schools, and expressly prohibit political propaganda in the classroom.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/4722

I don't know why any progressive would set up against such a project. :)

They don't even know the real history of our own country.

reform bill.

They're saying the big bad government is taking over.

It's the same play book.

He's a dictator, he pals around with terrorists and his supporters are thugs. Same script. Same claims by the right wing in both places. It's more transparent now than ever.

The same lie that led to the CIA's Pedro Pan exodus from Cuba in the early 1960s. Obama's ambassador to Honduras, Hugo Llorens is a former Pedro Panista.

You're right.

And in the 2007 referendum, our own tax dollars PAID for a similar campaign in Venezuela. We're paying for the right wing to fuck over the people. Nice.

go here and read the reviews of this book : The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto.

http://www.amazon.com/Underground-History-American-Education/dp/B000KF42JK

Bunch of godless comminist pinko reds!

which are the ones i think the article was referring to, if im incorrect you are more than welcome to inform me. Picture 25 shows about five people huddled near a barricade, they can be checking on someone who is injured, or it could be police restraining someone. THe crowd/marchers are walking down the street toward their destination. Yes, there is a huge crowd, but they are clearly walking, and no signs. This could be any protest. Picture 24 is of a row of riot police, but no one else that picture could be from any protest.

So what are you saying?

Is it that difficult to understand the headline "Thousands demonstrate over Venezuela education law"?

look at the pictures again, they're very misleading. Are you going to completely ignore what i've said and settle for a headline? A headline, no matter how big is not a picture.

Heaven forbid they google around and find out what's going on.

I suspect many of these "interns" are used to being silver-spoon fed, making a headline seem like a full-course meal.

If they didn't vote for Reagan, it's only because they were too young to join their parents at the poll.

You know, there are online videos of the protest march, if you want to get a bigger picture.

What part didn't you understand

Explain that part to me.

:)

I'm sure you'd prefer to only see pictures of the redshirt brigade instead of injured demonstrators.

I guess its MORE universal now. :eyes:

the new law states that parents can teach their children whatever religion they want, but that schools should be secular. How Jeffersonian!

This is not unusual. Catholicism is taught in Peru's public schools as well.

I see no problem if someone WANTS to send their kids to a Catholic school.

Can you read this? Because it looks like you recieved another beat down for posting this nonsense. Next time post something more believable, like Hugo killed the last unicorn.

Or are you suffering from an early case of snowblindness?

the world needs to turn left and stop corp. capitalism, the earth can't take much more.

It sounds oddly reminiscent of America maybe the 2008 democratic or republican conventions. Funny thing about that article, it said nothing about the law they were protesting.

Oops...

Panel suggests Texas students study conservatives
Associated Press
Saturday, August 22, 2009

AUSTIN, Texas -- Texas public school students should learn about Newt Gingrich and other conservative politicians but not liberals, according to the first draft of proposed standards for the state's high school history books.

The omission has angered liberals -- and some conservatives who feel students should get a look at both sides. "We ought to be focusing on historical significance and historical figures," state Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, told the San Antonio Express-News in Friday's editions. "It's important that whatever course they take, that it portray a complete view of our history and not a jaded view to suit one's partisan agenda or one's partisan philosophy."

The State Board of Education appointed review committees of current and former teachers as well as "expert reviewers" to help shape the standards document. The 15-member board, which includes 10 Republicans, will decide the standards next spring, influencing how history, civics and geography books are written.

The first draft recommends students studying U.S. history since Reconstruction be able to identify "significant conservative advocacy organizations and individuals, such as Newt Gingrich, Phyllis Schlafly and the Moral Majority." More at link...

http://www.theeagle.com/texas/Panel-suggests-Texas-students-study-conservatives

But Hugo Chavez eats kittehs!

Tell me if this doesn't sound familiar to American Democratic ears:

education system is a good thing?

what is your point?

other countries teach, we could examine our own system.

Disclosure: I've taught three decades in the Texas school system.

It seems highly manipulative, and geared at people who are just going to take it at face value. What's your beef with Chavez anyway, did he nationalize your house or fur company?

Other than that he vigorously embraces US adversaries, threatens US allies, shuts down media critics, prosecutes his political opposition, and regularly insults the US administration, what's not to like?

If i had a microphone, and my own Allo show, i'd regularly insult the US too. Frankly, i can give two figs what he does. That's for the Venezuelan people to handle, and despite the constant harping of various sources it looks a country that has problems similar to any other country on the planet. I don't see how it's any of our business, or is there some US interest in seeing him go?

Many things on that list can be said about this country, so what.

And further more, Hugo makes me smile.

his saber-rattling, and his interference in the internal affairs of other Latin American countries.

in the region, anti-US diatribes are to be expected from any Latin American patriot. Obama has manged a slight rhetorical shift, but no substantive change in our insidious regional policies.

Wall Street, the bankers and financiers responsible for the suffering of the American working class.

when the students get old enough to rebel and think for themselves. Stupid idea. Let teachers teach.

The same kind of rich people that are opposed to universal health care in US are opposed to free education through college for the Venezuelan masses.

Here is some background on this law:

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/4722

I assumed it did. I understood that this was specifically a plan to teach a particular political view in the schools. That is what usually backfires regardless of what side you are preferring. The best thing is to teach critical thinking techniques and let children hash out their own ideas.

Please read some of the stories I posted in this thread and in Editorials forum which debunk the rightwing lies about this law.

It wouldn't be by way of the steady and ongoing American right wing attempt to demonize Venezuela, would it?

MORE universal? :eyes:

Sounds a tad like double secret probation to me.

The Bolivarian Revolution has this Jeffersonian notion that public schools should be secular.

If you want your kid at a Catholic school, so be it. At a secular school. So be it.

They don't see any need to fund education in Venzuela much as the right wing here doesn't see any need to make health care your right.

They lost in Venzuela. I hope they lose here, too.

?


?

?

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

This is nothing different than the BS going in Texas schools.

Venezuelan National Assembly Passes New Education Law

August 14th 2009, by James Suggett - Venezuelanalysis.com

Opponents alleged that the law is anti-democratic because it was not subject to enough public consultation. They also said it threatens religious education and the family, and politicizes the classroom. In June, radio commentators falsely reported that two articles in the law would permit the state to take children between the ages of 3 and 20 away from their parents for socialist indoctrination.

In response to the allegations, Education Minister Hector Navarro fervently denounced the lie that the state will be permitted to sequester children, and repeatedly pointed out that the procedures taken by the National Assembly for the discussion and passage of the law were fully in line with the national constitution.

The Minister said the opposition's claims are not only incorrect, they "form part of a campaign that seeks to generate fear in the population."

Also in response to the allegations, several National Assembly legislators and some less intense opponents of the law cited numerous articles in the law which support the role of the family as part of the educational community, establish that religious education must be carried out privately and not in public schools, and expressly prohibit political propaganda in the classroom.

Several leaders of the National Workers Union (UNETE), Venezuela's largest labor union confederation, praised the law for expanding protections for teachers as well as laborers in educational institutions, and for establishing more democratic university admissions policies.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/4722

because now their maids' kids will be able to get as good an education as their own children.

It's spin just like death panels are spin.

Venezuelan National Assembly Passes New Education Law

August 14th 2009, by James Suggett - Venezuelanalysis.com

Opponents alleged that the law is anti-democratic because it was not subject to enough public consultation. They also said it threatens religious education and the family, and politicizes the classroom. In June, radio commentators falsely reported that two articles in the law would permit the state to take children between the ages of 3 and 20 away from their parents for socialist indoctrination.

In response to the allegations, Education Minister Hector Navarro fervently denounced the lie that the state will be permitted to sequester children, and repeatedly pointed out that the procedures taken by the National Assembly for the discussion and passage of the law were fully in line with the national constitution.

The Minister said the opposition's claims are not only incorrect, they "form part of a campaign that seeks to generate fear in the population."

Also in response to the allegations, several National Assembly legislators and some less intense opponents of the law cited numerous articles in the law which support the role of the family as part of the educational community, establish that religious education must be carried out privately and not in public schools, and expressly prohibit political propaganda in the classroom.

Several leaders of the National Workers Union (UNETE), Venezuela's largest labor union confederation, praised the law for expanding protections for teachers as well as laborers in educational institutions, and for establishing more democratic university admissions policies.

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news/4722

Washington Agency Creates Neoliberal University in Venezuela

Called the "El Cato-CEDICE University" (see: http://www.elcato.org/special/cato-univ-venezuela/lunes.html), it is a combined initiative of the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C. and the Venezuelan organization, Center for the Dissemination of Economic Knowledge for Freedom (CEDICE). It also has the support of Venezuelan organizations including the Future Present Foundation, which was created by Yon Goicochea, a leader of the Justice First political party; National Unity, the coalition of opposition political parties created in 2008; and New Bases, the opposition student movement of the Metropolitan University.

http://www.inteldaily.com/news/161/ARTICLE/10615/2009-05-06.html

I'm digging into some conspiracy territory here, but i think Cato and the Reason foundation are both arms of a Mr. Koch aka the Kocktopus to those in the libertarian know. BUt Reason mag is always harping about hugo chavez in articles by a mr. mike moynihan. Kind of disturbing to me

You mean, CATO somehow snuck into Venezuela and set up a University?

lol

My reading of the article is that the Catholic Church is riled up about education being secularized.

As for "political indoctrination," I went to elementary school in the 1950s and early 1960s. Our curriculum strongly implied that the U.S. was the only bearable place to live in the whole world, that our military kept it that way, and that anybody who didn't think so was a Communist. (As far as we knew, there were only two kinds of people in the world: pro-Americans and Communists.)

during "Duck and Cover" drills.

:rofl:

That would explain a lot.

lol

Viva Hugo! He is without fault as the Chosen one of the Venezuelan people!

Why are people so gullible. If the right wing said he was eating hub caps, I supposed you guys would believe that, too.

That's the main reason the reactionary Venezuelan Catholic Church is agitating against the new education law!

There is nobody better at brainwashing young minds than the Catholic Church.

THANK GOD the Bolivarians are offering a SECULAR education and a SECULAR government to those who want to free their minds. I was mightily grateful to our own--and to the Founders who established that principle--when I finally needed to bust out of that prison that the Catholic Church had built around my soul.

Venezuelan parents will be free to do that their children, if that's what they want to do, but the government won't be paying for it, and the rest of society will be on the freedom path, uncoerced by the extremely fascist religions of Rome or predatory capitalism.

It's interesting how the leftists are the real Christians, when you look at what they actually advocate and do (feeding, clothing the poor, brotherhood/sisterhood with the poor, equality, sharing, attending to the common good), yet they are always accused of being "godless" by the people who loot, stomp on, dominate, kick, beat, torture, hate, exploit, over-work, loathe, and, one way or another, kill the poor.

When the fascists in Venezuela did their coup attempt in 2002, the first thing they did was to suspend the Constitution, the National Assembly, the courts and all civil rights. And the next thing they would have done, had they succeeded, was to start dropping poor people and their leftist advocates out of airplanes, or chainsawing them while alive and dumping their body parts into mass graves, like they do in Colombia, that most religious of countries.

Their protests against free education, secularism and "participatory democracy" are absurd (and the organization of it all has most certainly been paid for by you and me).

----------------------

The rightwing are such goddamn liars. When they ran Venezuela, they couldn't be bothered with education of the poor majority, and utterly neglected it. The Chavez government has poured zillions of the oil profits into the education system, including adult education, and wiped out illiteracy in five years. Now they're going for a SECULAR (fact-based, reason-based focus) and CIVICS education, and the fascists and upper Catholic clergy are up in arms. The last thing in the world they want is a well-educated populace versed in their own rights as citizens and human beings, and empowered to organize in their own interests.

The Education Law does two things: It guarantees an education through university as a human right, enshrined in the Constitution, and it promotes "participatory democracy" as the focus if civics education. It leaves it up to schools, teachers and parents how to interpret the latter, just as the Chavistas have left it up to community councils to determine local needs. This is the MAIN governing principle of the Bolivarian Revolution that our corpo/fascist press cannot fathom, and completely ignores. The Chavistas are about as anti-authoritarian as you can get. They are pro-REAL democracy. Chavez is their SERVANT--as it should be--NOT their tyrant. They put him in office. They kept him in office when the fascists tried to topple him. They vote for him in big numbers. He reflects THEIR views. The Chavistas are the MAJORITY, and they believe in PARTICIPATORY democracy--everybody equal, everybody has a say, decisions emerge and policies are undertaken after widespread discussion.

This was true of the Education Law as well--something that James Suggett points out in his Venezuelanalysis article. The Education Law has been discussed for years--in many town halls organized by the National Assembly, to which everyone was invited. It has gone through several versions, with widespread public participation. All of its provisions were hammered out in public. The final, refined, legislative document was put before the National Assembly and voted for last week, but it is a goddamned lie that this law was "rammed" through in a week without public discussion.

The members of the National Assembly are separately elected by the people--in an election system that is far, far more transparent than our own. The National Assembly is pro-Chavez by choice of the people. When our corpo/fascist press and their anti-Chavez echo chamber claims that Chavez "controls" the National Assembly, they never mention that the National Assembly is independently elected! Chavez doesn't control the National Assembly. The National Assembly--representing the people of Venezuela in their districts--controls Chavez--or rather, they are all in general accord with the will of the people, subject to transparent elections!

And all of these legislators, and their constituents, and Chavez, are well aware of the need for grass roots organization--empowerment of the people, "participatory democracy"--to keep it that way. That's why they emphasize this most basic form of democracy in the Education Law in the Constitution. They don't want the people to yield their sovereignty to anyone. They are encouraging--and always have encouraged--the full sovereignty of each individual and the empowerment of each individual through LOCAL--on the ground, nearby, locally organized, wide-open mechanisms like the community councils. They see power as an organism or network with MANY centers. These individual and community centers of power converge to create, empower and control the national government. This is a MUCH MORE democratic system than our own, in which the national government has completely diverged from the will of the people on everything from egregiously unjust war to taxpayer-funded bonuses to financial criminals. We see the effects of the atrophy of our democratic system every day. The Venezuelans are trying every way they can to AVOID this--to avoid rule by oligarchs and global corporate predators and war profiteers, who manage to get hold of the power mechanisms of democracy--while the people SLEEP (are indeed deliberately put to sleep by disempowering corporate media)--and then squeeze the life out of the democracy in their own narrow, greedbag interests.

The Bolivarian Revolution--like our own democracy, at the beginning, and renewed over the centuries until recently--is an experiment in self-rule. It has its failures and successes like any such experiment, but it keeps trying. That is democracy's core principle--to keep trying, to keep renewing itself, to welcome new ideas, to encourage leadership wherever it arises, and to entrust to widespread participation the hope that the best ideas will "rise to the top" and the best people will emerge to implement them. Democracy is never perfect. That is its strength, not its weakness. It is always subject to reform.

The Chavez "cult of personality" is not particularly healthy in a democracy. But it's better than the "cult of war," or the "cult of Bush," or the "cult of Michael Jackson." And if Chavez were truly a "dictator," the people of Venezuela would long ago have tossed him out and found someone else to be president. They have had every opportunity to do so. Yet they continually--in transparent elections and in opinion polls--give him the highest marks. So he is not a "dictator" to them. He is serving their interests. In fact, he is very like our own FDR, who ran for and won four terms in office. FDR was also called a "dictator"--by the rightwing press. But when he tried to "pack the Supreme Court" (as they put it), what policy was he serving? Take a wild guess.

SOCIAL SECURITY! The rightwing court, appointed by his rightwing predecessors, were threatening to declare Social Security unconstitutional, and if they had not been pressured by FDR's threat to "pack the Supreme Court," your mom and dad, and your grandma and grandpa would have no pension today. And if the rightwing of today has their druthers, the fund will be privatized and looted before you get to it.

The charge of "dictator" has to be weighed against reality. Is it "dictatorial" to provide a free education, or pensions for the elderly, or to seek balance and fairness in use of the public airwaves? Or is it merely strong leadership in the public interest? Is it "dictatorial" to be a politician, to like the sound of your own voice, to parade about with flags and berets, to have devotees and even worshipers, to want to please people, to conceive visionary ideas and seek to implement them (ideas like "participatory democracy"!) (...or, ahem, Social Security)?

Is it "dictatorial" to have consistently high (60% range) approval ratings? No, it is not. All of these things merely amount to the temptation to be a "dictator." When examined, in reality, the word "dictator" is ridiculous--is an absurd lie. It is wildly off the mark as to what is REALLY going on in Venezuela. It is not a perfect democracy. It is not yet a fully "participatory" democracy. But it is most certainly a country in which the will of the people is being listened to, and the interests of the people are being served. Can we say that of our own country?

and I'd also like to be reborn in Venezuela.

"Secularization" seems to be one of the main provisions of this law - and increased educational funding? I admit to not reading links - don't have time right now - but that's what I'm picking up here. As for "Bolivian Doctrine" - how is that different from teaching the philosophical foundations our "Founding Fathers" drew on in the formulation of the Declaration and the Constitution?

It would hardly surprise me to find the Oligarchs and the Church opposed to secularization and increased funding. But it is rather surprising to see posters here evidently supporting that opposition.

That's the main reason the reactionary Venezuelan Catholic Church is agitating against the new education law!

Oh, geeze.