The ideological background of the Educational Freedom Bill

Abstract

This paper presents a theoretical reflection about the theoretical foundations of the Educational Freedom Law. At the end of 2025, the national government introduced a bill to repeal the National Education Law (Law 26.206). The aim is a paradigm shift in the education system, placing the national government in a subsidiary role and granting greater decision-making power to institutions and, through them, to families. It also seeks to modify the current educational funding and the teachers' labor agreements. In general, the law aims to restructure the system so that it operates according to demand, as seen in the classic voucher system. This paper reconstructs the contributions of certain intellectuals—primarily economists—who laid the ideological groundwork for this reform in various works since the 1980s. The contributions of Alberto Benegas Lynch (Jr.), Martín Krause, and Edgardo Zablotsky are analyzed in this reflection.