Education Under Libertarian Recomposition in Argentina

Summary

Argentina has placed education at the center of state policy. This is because the Argentine Constitution acknowledges education as a right that is individual, social, political, economic, cultural, and environmental. Education as a human right is included in most international human-rights instruments with constitutional hierarchy, and the several education laws passed after the 1994 constitutional reform also reflect this. However, as soon as Javier Milei took office, in December 2023, the state began to change its role in education in accordance with the principles of the anarcho-capitalist and paleolibertarian ideologies to which the president subscribes. There is evidence that anarcho-capitalist and paleolibertarian educational policies were exercised during during the Milei’s presidency. First, some policies can be explained from anarcho-capitalist perspectives, such as the ones issued by the executive power, whose decisions were translated into several extensive rules. Second, several views have been expressed publicly on public education at all levels, which reflects a paleolibertarian vision of society. All of this supports the conclusion that a process of libertarian recomposition has begun that does not fulfill the constitutional and legislative bases of education as a human right, which Argentina holds.