In 2010, in thirty states across the nation, students and faculty members protested for access to public education and against tuition and fee hikes. A common theme of the protests was the fear that rising tuition would effectively privatize public higher education, making it inaccessible to a broad segment of the nation's youth. These protests were followed by massive demonstrations in early 2011 over the efforts of states like Wisconsin and Ohio--under the guise of cutting deficits--to limit the ability of labor unions to engage in collective bargaining. Puerto Rico was not immune to these deficit-cutting policies; what was unique and terrifying was the government's violent repression of faculty, staff, and student protests. Hidden from the eyes of the world, the most intense struggle for democracy and public education since the 1960s is now under way in Puerto Rico. In this article, the author discusses this social protest and the future of higher education in Puerto Rico.