Lima, June 23 (teleSUR-RHC)-- After a public awareness campaign highlighted how Peru has the lowest percentage of investment in education out of all countries participating in the Copa America tournament, some observers are saying that current attempts to increase funds are too little, too late.
 

"Fundación Sol," a public awareness campaign, was launched in coordination with the beginning of the Copa America Soccer Championship. It reveals how Peru invests the lowest percentage of GDP in public education out of all the countries in the tournament.

A graph circulated by the campaign shows Peru is at the very bottom of the ranking when in it comes to investment in public education, allotting only 3.3 percent of its GDP. The graph features all countries participating in Copa America, including all the Spanish-speaking South American countries plus Brazil, Jamaica, and Mexico.

Bolivia leads in public investment in education with 6.4 percent. Venezuela is not included in the ranking but it is shown with a note stating that in the last study in the country in 2010, the South American country was investing 6.8 percent of its GDP in public education. That would put both Venezuela and Bolivia with close to twice the percentage invested in Peru.

In their speeches, most Peruvian political actors say that investment in public education has to increase significantly. However, analysts argued that when it comes to concrete actions such as increasing teachers’ salaries or repairing schools, politicians end up giving priority to cutting taxes for businesses such as large multinationals in the mining sector. Thus the problem they say is when the government avoids collecting taxes to favor private businesses instead of public education. The amount of income tax collected in Peru is at 14 percent of GDP, which is significantly lower compared to the Latin American average of 18 percent.

“There is a fear that if you increase taxes, investments will go away,” Teresa Tovar a professor of Public Administration at the Catholic University of Peru said on Monday. “Bolivia increased them and they didn't go away. Therefore you must increase taxes.”