While university protests continue, the Senate is rushing the approval of educational financing

The senator of Union for the Homeland He noted that he will call for a plenary session of committees for Tuesday, September 3, and with the presence of representatives of Budget and Financewill seek to reach the ruling without modifications of what was sanctioned in Deputies. From there, he will seek to convene a session 48 hours later, to consolidate the approval of the law in the chamber.

The project, which was awarded the Approval in the Chamber of Deputies on August 15proposes a budgetary strengthening of the current allocations for teachers’ salaries, university extension activities, science and technology and infrastructure operation. The government estimates that it would have a fiscal impact of $1.4 trillion.

“There is consensus to discuss university funding”said De Pedro at the end of the commission and noted that the one he presides is “a commission that requires a lot of work. In this new scenario, I think we have to think of good reforms of the educational model, be creative; We have to work on consensus and agreements”.

In the event of a session being convened in the premises, the opportunity could work for the treatment of the Decree 656/2024, which allocated reserved funds for the State Intelligence Secretariat (SIDE). This project does not have a committee opinion, so it would require a special two-thirds majority to be discussed on the table, that is to say at least 48 senators. The opposition is not far from that figure: to the 33 from Union for the Fatherland, eight from provincial blocks and a percentage of the thirteen from the UCR could be added. both the larretista Guadalupe Tagliaferri as the former member of the LLA Francisco Paoltroni They have already announced their vote against the decree.

Universities’ complaints about funding law

At the request of the Federation of University Teachers (FEDUN), who claim that the salaries of their members lost almost half of their purchasing power, a statement was added in the last few hours from the Higher Council of the University of Buenos Aireswhere they highlight the urgency of the situation of teachers and non-teaching staff in public institutions.

“The purchasing power of wages has seen a real loss of around 40% this year.”. Furthermore, the text points out that “the evolution of salaries in national universities is even lower than that of the rest of the public sector workers, whose salaries are also have lost significantly in relation to the recorded inflation”, they indicate.

In turn, they recall that “a budget law for the year 2024 has not been approved in the National Congress, which is why it is A regulatory framework is needed to guarantee protection and the maintenance of funding for national universities during the current fiscal year.”

Finally, they consider that “the approval of this bill would generate a positive impact on the National Universitiesallowing them to have an adequate budget to guarantee the functions of teaching, health, research and extension.”

Fernando Brovelli Report.-