Educators International and the Confederation of American Educators-the two organizations to which the majority of teachers in the Western world belong-met on October 14-16, 1995 in Buenos Aires. The meeting, which was hosted by the Confederation of Educational Workers of the Argentine Republic (CTERA), was held to coincide with the Ibero-American Summit in Bariloche. The teachers' objective was to voice their concern about the crushing problems they face and the uncertain future of education in the region. They issued a declaration that criticizes the short- sightedness of neoliberal educational reforms, and declares that education should be considered a strategic investment in the future. The document emphasizes that only the long-term policies of democratic governments, hammered out with broad-based civic participation, will guarantee qual- ity education. The teachers also called for overcom- ing the false contradiction between public educa- tion and modernization. They did so by affirming the four educational principles that underlie demo- cratic modernization: education should be non-sec- tarian, free, obligatory and integrating. These prin- ciples, which have not been sufficiently adhered to by modern education systems, are now under attack by neoliberal policymakers. According to the document, teachers want an education system which: "* is governed and managed with the participation of teachers, and not left entirely in the hands of bureaucrats and politicians "* guarantees fair salaries and ongoing professional training "* answers the demands of all sectors of the popula- tion and broadens economic investment "* is multicultural and does not discriminate against minorities "* keeps study plans up-to-date, and regularly revises the curricula "* responds to the infrastructural needs of public schools. The teachers agreed that these educational reforms will not be possible without the participa- tion of the unions and associations that represent educational workers. They demanded that collec- tive bargaining be respected and that their unions be given a role in the discussion of education poli- cies. They criticized the coercive measures that have been used to repress union activity, and govern- ment interference intended to weaken and atomize the union movement.
