Mexico's Reform Agenda at Risk

Groundbreaking reforms offered by Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto may lose momentum if his allies in congress bow to violent protests by teachers’ unions against a planned education overhaul. If the president capitulates on an issue where he enjoys popular support, it is difficult to imagine how he will manage the critical and thorny issue of energy reform. Mexico’s congress now is debating plans to rehabilitate a notoriously inefficient education system, which has stunted the country’s economic growth for decades. According to many local commentators, the teachers’ fury is aimed at plans to require periodic evaluation of their performance. In a system in which teacher tenure is considered a birthright — literally treated as a family inheritance — such accountability is unthinkable.