School protests send shivers down French government's spine

On Thursday – the high point so far – hundreds of lycées (where 15-18 year-olds finish their schooling) were being blockaded. On Friday, the situation had improved but around 400 lycées were closed in order to protect staff and students. Universities are beginning to join in.Violence has erupted. On Thursday the main hall of a lycée in Nantes was destroyed by fire. Smaller fires too numerable to mention were lit at school entrance gates around the country. The cost of the damage is millions of euros.According to Education Minister Édouard Geffray, 65 teaching staff including 40 school heads have been injured. "Most of the staff who were hurt said that the people they were facing… were not their own pupils," he said.AFP via Getty ImagesThe protests have spread across France, and some university students are now joining inIn addition, the government says that around 300 police and firefighters have been treated for injuries, and some 2,000 people – mainly minors – taken into custody. For their part, student groups say they have a long list of people injured by police. Two teenagers have serious eye injuries and one has lost many of his teeth.The problem would be hard enough if it was just a question of meeting the protesters' demands. But there is another dimension – a political and social one – which makes this student crisis far more dangerous than in the past.The demands do exist, even if they remain vague. They are about money – the lack of it – and the need for more teachers, smaller classes and better buildings.On such matters, many in France would agree with the teenagers. Certainly using protest to demand money from government is such a national habit that even governments agree it's legitimate. And of course, things are indeed getting worse in the education system – because money is so tight.