Mexico Girds for Education Standoff After Contentious Bill Passes Jose de Cordoba - WSJ.com
go to original September 3, 2013

MEXICO CITY — President Enrique Peña Nieto, facing fresh protests on Monday from a radical teacher union, vowed to press on with plans to revamp the nation's educational system as well as overhaul the state energy sector and tax code, urging lawmakers to ignore pressure from the street and reshape the country in the coming months.

The president, giving his first state of the nation address since taking office in December, spoke the morning after one of his biggest victories to date: a vote late Sunday by the country's lower house of Congress to pass a bill calling for teacher evaluations and the possible firing of ones deemed inferior.

Voting on the bill had been delayed for nearly two weeks by the teachers who have descended on Mexico City, blockading Congress and vital avenues. On Sunday, lawmakers were taken to Congress in buses and under heavy police guard, where they passed the bill, 390 in favor to 69 against. The bill this week will go to the Senate, where approval looks likely.

The vote threatens to deepen a confrontation with a powerful faction of the country's teachers union, a dissident group known as the National Coordinator of Educational Workers, or CNTE, and its 250,000 members. Even as Mr. Peña Nieto spoke, teachers planned a massive rally for Wednesday.

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