This article examines the impact of severe economic recession upon Chilean education in the early 1980s, with particular reference to the municipalisation and privatisation policies of the Pinochet government. The adaptation of these policies to the recessionary conditions and deep foreign indebtedness of the Chilean economy is discussed, together with the Pinochet government's continued use of repression to maintain its preferred educational order. Finally, the response of the splintered opposition to the Pinochet dictatorship is examined, including the role of opposition political parties, the teachers’ union, and the Catholic Church in articulating alternatives to official government education policies.