Mexico's education system is a shambles, and the teachers union is a big part of the reason. The Washington Post explains.

Jose Luis Gonzalez, the principal of a local middle school, received an unusual letter from a group of ninth-graders last semester. "Our teacher doesn't show up to class," the children wrote, begging him to replace their math instructor.

But Gonzalez said he was powerless to take action even though the teacher, Carlos Ignacio Loyda, was working another job and missed up to three-quarters of his classes some months. Loyda's position was protected by Mexico's powerful teachers union, Gonzalez said.

...A report by the World Economic Forum ranked the quality of education in Mexico 74th out of 102 nations surveyed, just behind Cameroon. The country's dismal marks contribute to lives of closed opportunities. Half of Mexico's population is trapped in poverty, illiteracy is endemic in rural areas, and the average child abandons school at 14. Success for millions of Mexicans means sneaking into the United States to mow lawns or pick apples.

There's more.

Many Mexicans blame their teachers, or more precisely the National Education Workers Union, which represents 1.3 million educators. The trade union, the largest in Latin America, has created what critics describe as a monstrous system of perks and patronage, including a practice that allows teaching positions to be inherited and sold for cash.

....The relationship between the teachers union and the federal government has long been one of the commanding dramas of Mexican politics. During the 71-year rule of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, the union guaranteed the ruling party votes in exchange for a controlling interest in the education system.

Leticia Barba Martin, a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico who ran a teachers college for 20 years, said the union "is a political force more than anything. It hurts education because it creates inertia and traditions that don't permit necessary changes."

Sounds like the National Education Association, in the U.S. And the NEA's vituperative Washington State arm, the Washington Education Association. WEA allies have advanced to the fall ballot an initiative to overturn recently-enacted state legislation for public charter schools. Competition and accountability terrify the leaders of big teachers unions.

Posted by Matt Rosenberg at July 19, 2004 09:00 AM

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