Paloma’s achievements highlight how Mexico’s public education system is failing its children. Last year, thousands of teachers took to the streets across Mexico to protest the Alliance for Educational Quality program, or ACE, a sort of No Child Left Behind program in Mexico, which was instituted by the government of President Felipe Calderón.
Teachers say the program results in fewer students graduating from elementary and middle schools. They claim ACE is a move toward privatization, and changes the focus of Mexico’s culture of education to a more corporate-friendly system suited for the needs of big businesses. The teachers also claim ACE forces them to work for more hours without pay and ignores poverty, the main cause of students’ educational problems.
