Monday, November 6, 2006
Back to School in Mexico’s Strife Torn Oaxaca
By Allan Wall
Mexican President Vicente Fox is not trigger-happy
and he did not want to intervene in Oaxaca, hoping it would fizzle out or be solved in negotiation. But it didn’t, so
Fox took the decision of sending the PFP (Federal Preventative Police), a military-style federal police unit, to Oaxaca.
Much as one might abhor the use of government force,
there’s a point where its use, properly applied, may prevent more violence.
In American history there was the Whiskey Rebellion
of 1794, which tested George Washington in his second term. Washington called
up a military force that was as large as that fielded during the War of Independence, which he personally commanded, and the
Whiskey Rebellion was quashed.
As for Oaxaca, its political problems are still
unresolved. It looks as though Felipe Calderon, scheduled to take office on December
1st, will have Oaxaca to deal with along with all his other challenges.
Oaxaca governor Ulises Ruiz continues to refuse
to resign, though many believe his resignation would improve the situation. Maybe Fox could help by offering Ruiz some kind
of plum assignment far away from Oaxaca, such as an ambassadorship to an Asian or African country. Ruiz’s Institutional
Revolutionary Party, the PRI, could help by brokering a backroom deal substituting another PRI member for Ruiz, thus allowing
the party to save face.
Almost forgotten in all the brouhaha are the
students of Oaxaca, most of whom are finally starting back to school.
It was the teachers’ strike of the SNTE (National
Union of Workers in Education) local 22 which sparked off this whole crisis, before the momentum shifted to activists of APPO
(Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca). But the boys and girls of Oaxaca,
the schoolchildren, have been pawns in the whole game. And it is pertinent to
point out that Oaxaca is one of the three poorest states in Mexico (along with Guerrero and Chiapas).
Most everybody would agree on the importance of education
to Oaxaca’s (and Mexico’s) future. But tough questions need to be
asked about Mexico’s educational system and the union that has so much influence over it.
Mexico’s SNTE is considered one of the
most powerful unions in the Western Hemisphere. But teacher’s unions in
public education bring along their own set of problems. Peter Brimelow wrote a book about it, called “The Worm in the
Apple,” an excellent expose of U.S. teacher’s unions. Writing about
these unions, Brimelow pointed out that they form “the near-monopoly supplier to a government-enforced monopoly consumer.”
This applies to Mexico’s SNTE as well. In the case of Oaxaca, the children were pawns in the conflict between the teacher’s
union and the state governor.
What about private education? Mexico has many good private schools, and most middle and upper class families send their children to private
schools. Following solid market principles, a Mexican urban area has a wide range
of private schools available. There are very exclusive schools for the really rich kids, and there are many economical schools
for middle class students.
The existence of private schools also allows parents
to choose schools that more closely match their own beliefs. Mexican government
education is strongly secular, so some Catholic families prefer to send their children to a Catholic school that will reinforce
their own values.
However there is a big economic problem involved
here, namely the plight of Mexico’s poor families who don’t have the money to send their children to private schools. Charity foundations and other non-governmental organizations could help, by providing
scholarships for poor children to attend private schools. Surely Carlos Slim
and the nine other Mexican billionaires could do more in this regard.
Homeschooling, which has been quite successful in
the United States, is another option. With encouragement and expert help,
homeschooling could become very popular in Mexico.
Certainly the expansion of private education would
provoke great controversy. Government education is considered a triumph of the Mexican Revolution, and such an expansion would
threaten many vested interests.
But for out-of-the-box Mexican thinkers and reformers
who really want to improve Mexican education, these are real possibilities.
And when the next Oaxaca-style teacher strike erupts,
more students would be unaffected. Privately educated students would be
immune from the power struggles of politicians and union activists, and that would be a big step forward.
Allan Wall, a MexiData.info columnist, recently
returned from a tour of duty in Iraq. He currently resides in Mexico, where he
has lived since 1991. He can be reached
via e-mail at allan39@prodigy.net.mx.
