"De Panzazo": The Fate of Public Schooling In Mexico

As if the fate of public schools in the United States was not bad enough, a new documentary exposes the corruption and dysfunction widespread in Mexico. Even "La Escuela" from El Chavo del Ocho would give most Mexican classrooms a run for their pesos.

The documentary"De Panzazo" (Spanish slang for "barely passing"), filmed in large part by cameras secreted by students into classrooms, identifies core deficiencies in Mexican public education, the failures of which mirror the glaring problems in American education.

From decrepit classrooms to powerful teachers unions, to intimidated bureaucrats and apathetic parents, the documentary, produced by Juan Carlos Rulfo and  Carlos Loret de Mola, has ignited a storm of protest from avid viewers.

The Los Angeles Times' front insert report on "De Panzazo" exposes the ramshackle remnants of a classroom, with chairs stacked in disarray behind a small group of youth with very little to work with. Columnist Ken Ellingwood reports that "classrooms are crumbling" in that country, a report which educational reformers like John Taylor Gatto of New York also rallied against for years, citing the utter contempt by district administrators to fix doors, repair roofs, or even offer adequate supplies to teachers for maintaining their classrooms.

The powerful Mexican teacher's lobby, headed by the feared and loathed Elba Esther Gordillo, reportedly maneuvers for unqualified teachers to obtain teaching positions, which doom the vast majority of students to substandard education every day. Even enthusiastic and committed teachers face few prospects of turning the tide of mediocrity and failure for their students. Former Washington D.C. Chancellor Michelle Rhee also faced the daunting and unwholesome reality that despite her best efforts and immense achievements with her students in the Baltimore suburbs, she was certain that they would endure a long train of terrible teachers in the years that followed, which would all but diminish her exertions to improve the lot of her pupils.

Powerless bureaucrats do very little to hold professionals accountable. Principals and district officials across the United States endure the same wall of stagnation. In Los Angeles, recently-installed John Deasy has take the initiative to resist automatic tenure promotion, as well as streamline bureaucracy and invest every school and student with a sense of value. Still, like the schools in Mexico, Deasy still crosses at times with the teacher's union, which also resists much needed reforms like their counterpart South of the Border.

Confirming the damning evidence in Loret's documentary, The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development administered a test, whose findings ranked Mexico's public schools last among top-tier nations around the world in math, science, and reading. Students in many classrooms struggle to keep up, as the larger majority of them simply cannot read. Teachers in Los Angeles, and no doubt throughout the United States, also face the monumental, and very intimidating task, of reaching students who have fallen through the cracks so many times that they have just pushed ahead from year to year, regardless of their achievement or lack thereof.

Because of the poor quality of local schools, even the most impoverished of families in Mexico will save up their money and send their children to a private school. Despite the rallying cry of "Education for Everyone" following the Mexican Revolution of 1910, those less fortunate in Mexico find themselves falling further behind as their quest for social mobility stalls in the presence of uncommitted teachers and rampant corruption throughout the country.

Loret and Rulfo invested three years into this documentary in order to arouse nationwide indignation at the status quo of low achievement and lower turnout in Mexico's public education system. Yet outrage alone will not change the system. As in the United States, where bankrupt state governments facing off against budget short-falls and weakened public unions are prevailing to open up public schools to choice and more local autonomy, the citizens of Mexico must insist on less from the national leadership and demand more for themselves in determining what is best for the children. If the Mexicanos Primeros ("Mexicans First", a major education reform group in Mexico) can push for less government, less intrusion of the state, fewer controls from the federal government in quantifying and evaluating student progress, then poor as well-off may enjoy greater reform and more liberty in their classrooms than in years past, where the needs of the student trump the narrow will of politicians and public sector unions who seek more of the same, all to their exclusive benefit.