(Updates number of arrested) By Rodrigo Martinez SANTIAGO, June 18 (Reuters) - Students and teachers clashed with police in Chile on Wednesday to protest an education bill they say doesn't go far enough to bring equal access to schooling for the poor even with a government flush with copper dollars. About a thousand students marched shoulder to shoulder in the nation's capital, confronting police with tear gas and water canon in the upscale Providencia neighborhood. In Valparaiso, the port town where the national Congress is debating the controversial legislation, 10,000 teachers marched in peaceful demonstrations. "The quality of public education is very poor in this country, and does not stand a chance against the interests of the rich," said Jaime Gajardo, president of Chile's National College of Teachers. Chile is the world's largest copper producer and revenues from the red metal have helped make the Chilean economy one of the region's healthiest. Demonstrators want President Michelle Bachelet to withdraw an education bill from Congress that replaces a law in place since the end of Chile's 1973-1990 dictatorship. Students and teachers don't like the existing law either, but they say the new bill does not go far enough to meet their needs, and are demanding the government draw more on funds from coffers bursting with revenues from a four-year copper bonanza. They also accuse the center-left government of allowing the wealthy right to control the debate over education funding. "When you negotiate with the (political) right, the right wins," Gajardo said. Public school students and teachers say privileged, private schools receive government funds that would be better served in improving the public school system. Police said at least 270 students were arrested by late afternoon in Santiago, and at least seven more were arrested in Valparaiso. (Reporting by Rodrigo Martinez, writing by Pav Jordan, editing by Todd Eastham)
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