Thousands of green-shirted teachers and students took to the streets across Spain to protest Austerity-inspired spending cuts and regressive “reforms” they say are destroying the country's public education system.

The demonstrators called on education minister Jose Ignacio Wert to resign.  The Platform for the Defense of Public Schools says it’s not just the choking of proper funding, but also the forced return of Roman Catholicism into the curriculum.  Gender segregated schools would get state support.  That had protesters accusing Wert of condemning Spanish Education back to the era of the fascist dictator Francisco Franco.

Education in Spain is in crisis.  Students are already performing below European Union standards in Mathematics and Foreign Languages, putting them at a disadvantage.

But thanks to “austerity”, it’s getting worse.  The education ministry's budget has been cut by 14 percent between 2012 and 2013.  As a result, University tuition and fees are soaring and class sizes are swelling.  There are fewer grants available graduate studies.  And families in rural areas are dealing with cuts to school buses for primary school students.

“We have a small budget and they are reducing it more and more.  There are fewer and fewer teachers and more and more students,” said high-school English teacher Fernanda Gonzalez.