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 Editorials | Opinions | December 2006 
Improving Education is Essential to Any Plan to Revitalize Mexico
 Mark C. Alvarez - sltrib.com
After eluding barricades, demonstrators and fistfights two weeks ago, Felipe Calderon hurried through a ceremony to become Mexico's president. Addressing the Mexican people later that day, Calderon set forth three priorities: restoring public safety, reducing poverty and creating jobs.
If only the challenges were as simple as the rhetoric. Half of the population of Mexico lives in poverty. Crime seems rampant. Many distrust the government.
Calderon faces a national congress in which only 41 percent of the representatives belong to his party. He received just 36 percent of the vote, winning by a margin of less than 1 percent. Though Calderon appears to be a capable coalition builder, he must continue reaching out to the Mexican people.
Calderon wisely heeded the call of his opponent's slogan - "For the good of all, first the poor" - in articulating his priorities. Calderon must now act upon that wisdom.
Improving education is essential. On average, the nation's adult population completes barely eight years of schooling, according to the Mexican National Institute of Statistics. In the southern states of Oaxaca, Guerrero and Chiapas, the figure drops to about six years.
"Equality of opportunity" becomes a meaningless slogan in the absence of education that prepares all children for opportunity. Public schools require more resources and greater attention, especially in the poorer regions.
In 1979, Octavio Paz wrote about the need of the United States to learn more about the "others" residing both inside and outside her borders. In 2007, Paz's advice will be equally pertinent in Mexico.
More than one in eight adults born in Mexico live in the United States. In 2005, a Pew Hispanic Center survey indicated that 46 percent of adults in Mexico would move to the United States given the means and opportunity. This desire varies slightly but holds at all levels of income and education.
How can Calderon revitalize Mexico? Instead of exporting people, Mexico must retain them and begin to attract those living abroad back into a well-functioning society and economy.
The North American Free Trade Agreement has produced economic disequilibrium as have United States agricultural subsidies. People losing jobs on Mexican farms have predictably sought similar jobs up north.
Many highly educated Mexicans have moved to the United States, Europe and Asia. Migration is problematic for Mexico. While advantages arise out of cultural, educational and economic exchange, Mexico is losing a critical mass of its most energetic and vital people.
Remittances - money sent back home by those who have immigrated - have become important in Mexico's economy. Nevertheless, these remittances, which exceeded $21 billion in 2005, according to the World Bank, come at the cost of divided families and missed opportunities inside Mexico.
Calderon has made economic development a fundamental priority for the nation. This is important but alone is insufficient. Improving education remains crucial to social and economic development in Mexico.
This is true for excessively high numbers of young people who dream of a journey north and for displaced and ignored workers who badly need vocational training that allows them to be productive in a prosperous society.
Mexico produces world-class novelists, artists, musicians and filmmakers of which any country would be proud. Still, the Mexican government has to reach further to the "others" and invite them to help propel Mexico into a world cultural and economic power.
While the causes of migration difficulties between Mexico and the United States are many, migration presents a standard for President Calderon and the Mexican government to achieve: Mexico must transform the trend of people and capital looking to exit into one of people and capital looking to enter.
Mark C. Alvarez is a Salt Lake City attorney. |
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