Gotta love a good ol French protest and how they well evolve into setting their own schools on fire for poor facilities (now they have none) and long hours.... I feel like that is school, though. I do have sympathy for the teacher shortage issue, though. We have that in the U.S., and it's a huge problem.
The rallies turned increasingly violent this week, with some protesters clashing with police and setting fire to schools and vehicles. Dozens of educational staff, hundreds of police officers and more than 100 pupils are said to have been injured since the protests began, according to the French press.
There's nothing particularly "french" about this...walk 3 streets outside your DC office into the neighboring slums and you will find the exact same mentality.
uhhhh there are not violent protests with schools on fire.... protesting and lighting stuff on fire (or dumping manure) is a very very French thing. They love a good ol protest against their government; it's practically a yearly tradition
This is actually a good point. The farmers spraying cowshit into Macron's summer house was always a favorite.
Funny thing is, it's not entirely irrational.
Studies have shown that areas in a developed city that get burned down often come back stronger than before. The thing is that tearing something down is sometimes the best thing to do, but as a collective action it's hard to get everyone to agree to tear it down. So it persists in a sorry state for a long time. If some external factor forces it to get torn down, the result can actually be better.
From what I understand, with the budget, the state doesn't have the money right now to rebuild schools. They didn't even have the money to update them, so destroying them requires new money that isn't there. In a normal situation, I agree with you on the idea of getting destroyed and coming back strong being the right decision, but in the immediate term I don't see that being the case.
Countries like France, in particular, spend a ton of money on other social benefits programs that have gotten huge while tax revenues have fallen and life has gotten more expensive. They are in a pickle, and no matter what they do, a lot of people are going to be pissed. If more and more schools get torched, you have to wonder where the cuts will be made in the social programs to rebuild and/or fix the schools.