ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the central tenets of the formulation of Chile’s educational policies. During the military dictatorship, Pinochet headed the great experiment of installing an education market model. Two parallel reforms changed everything: the financing system was based on subsidy on demand, and public education was decentralized, and it remained in the hands of the municipalities. The democratic governments that began in 1990 carried out a growing and ambitious education policy agenda. The market model was maintained, but the focus was on creating compensatory and systemic improvement actions promoted by the central state (Bellei & Vanni, 2015). In the mid-2000s, the dynamics of the reforms were an unstoppable train. An established notion of lack of results drove further change; new curricular devices were implemented to regulate teaching practices directly. The arrival of the first substantial change of government in 2010, with a right-wing government, failed to establish its policies but rather accentuated competition mechanisms and pressure for higher results. In 2014, the presidency of Michelle Bachelet embraced a broad social demand for changes. For the first time, the foundations of a market-oriented education system were discussed (Navarro & Gysling, 2017), and policies oriented to modify them were implemented.
