Education Reforms in Mexico:

Canada Beware, Corporate Education Reformers have found Bad Teacher and Failing Schools in Mexico ( it's all the fault of a nasty old teachers union)

Israel Ortega

April 21, 2013 at 7:00 am

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ALFREDO ESTRELLA/AFP/Getty Images/Newscom

Since taking office as Mexico’s newest president, Enrique Pena Nieto has quickly made it a point to anger one of the most influential interest groups responsible for blocking Mexican progress: teachers unions. Predictably (and not unlike in our own country), the teachers unions are upset over a number of ambitious education reforms aimed at increasing accountability into Mexico’s education system.

As we have been reporting, Mexico seems poised for education reform, as evidenced by the release of last year’s documentary titled De Panzanzo (loosely translated to “Barely Passing”), which exposes a decrepit Mexican public school system prone to corruption. Among the most troubling findings of the film was a decades-old practice of buying and selling teaching jobs.

Teachers unions have responded to the changes by staging large, disruptive public protests