By Roberto Morejon
During a recent national power outage in Cuba, caused by a system failure, restoring service was prioritized, along with restoring the water supply and minimizing the impact on the school year.
As soon as possible, schools reopened, and students were even encouraged to attend without uniforms, so as not to miss classes.
This was evidence of the priority the country places on education, even amid serious material shortages, primarily due to the U.S. blockade.
According to official calculations, 38 hours without Washington's blockade would provide the nearly $22 million needed to finance the education system in one year. Schools are short on pencils and notebooks, and many buildings require architectural improvements.
However, by strictly utilizing affordable funding and with limited foreign currency coverage, it is guaranteed that all enrolled students receive the knowledge imparted by teachers.
It is true that the country's economic decline caused educators to leave for other, higher-income economic activities, but retired teachers, contracted teachers, or higher-level students continued the school year and continued their education.
In a poor country without significant natural resources, education is carried out under the auspices of José Martí's philosophy, with titanic efforts to ensure that the school, the family, and the community fulfill their roles in education.
These circumstances contrast with what happens in the United States, the world's leading economy and a military power, but whose government suffocates the Department of Education. President Donald Trump signed an executive order to eliminate that body, a long-standing goal of the most rancid right, to prevent schools from teaching "progressive ideas," according to the absurd Republican narrative.
Advised by billionaire Elon Musk, Trump is cutting public spending and implementing a "tyrannical power grab," in the opinion of Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.
No one in Washington is fazed by the certainty that the federal budget is invaluable for low-income and special-needs schools.
Very different from this scenario with no response for the vulnerable in the United States, in Cuba, amid accentuated limitations and hostility from abroad, special education -- like general education -- does not slam the doors, even though children do not have all the essential books and notebooks.
