A Sabritas snack delivery truck parked on a street in Mazatlán

In One Year, Junk Food Was Eradicated From Mexico’s Schools

ByFernando Camacho and Enrique Méndez

This article by Fernando Camacho and Enrique Méndez originally appeared in the October 29, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

Mexico City. The head of the Ministry of Public Education (SEP), Mario Delgado Carrillo, stated that in a single year junk food was “expelled” from elementary and middle schools, and said that “we will continue fighting the big corporations in court so that these products do not return” to the classrooms.

During his appearance before the Education Committee of the Chamber of Deputies, as part of the review of President Claudia Sheinbaum’s second State of the Nation Report, Delgado stressed that, even though “it seemed impossible to get junk food out of the schools,” it has now been achieved.

Although 139 amparo lawsuits were filed “by the big transnationals, we are not going to allow those products to return. We have not lost a single amparo, and we have three favorable rulings in the (Supreme) Court that will allow all the other lawsuits to be resolved in our favor,” Delgado assured.

According to the secretary, the change was based on the fact that the La Escuela es Nuestra (The School Is Ours) program “has as its guiding axes the textbooks that explain how to have a healthy life, which foods support development, and the importance of physical activity. That is why the cooperatives have healthy food options.”

In the Green Room of San Lázaro, Delgado also faced multiple criticisms from opposition deputies, who reproached him for the “failure” of La Escuela es Nuestra, as well as the results of Mexican students on the PISA test, and even the “indoctrination” in the content of the free textbooks.

Limit on the Use of Cell Phones

During his presentation, the official stressed that under the Morena governments “the trap of closing doors on young people and then shifting the blame onto them and calling them ninis (neither studying nor working) is over. Today they are supported with scholarships, dignified schools, and more places to study, with cutting-edge and relevant degree programs, with health and socio-emotional education.”

Likewise, he highlighted that “for the first time in the history of Mexico, all students in public elementary, middle, and high schools arrive at school with a scholarship under their arm,” so that, by the end of 2026, 22 million students at all levels will receive financial support.

He also defended the La Escuela es Nuestra model, which “has served more than 73,000 schools” and has been extended to upper secondary schools. “We have now served all the public high schools in Mexico, benefiting a total of 8.8 million students in elementary, middle, and high schools,” he said.

In the same vein, he added that “more than 154 million free textbooks arrived at the schools on time,” and highlighted that on November 3 a “unanimous agreement” will take effect throughout the national education system to limit the use of cell phones and mobile devices in schools at all levels.

Delgado highlighted the Sheinbaum government’s goal of reaching 400,000 new high school places by 2030, to achieve a gross enrollment rate of more than 90 percent, which he described as “unprecedented,” as well as the elimination of the exam of the Metropolitan Commission of Public Institutions of Upper Secondary Education (Comipems).

Regarding teachers’ salary conditions, he emphasized that “in 2026, 200,000 permanent positions have been granted, adding up to a total of 1.2 million since 2018. Last year the salary increased 10 percent and this year 9 percent, a recovery in real terms of 80 percent since 2018.”

“We Don’t Want Show-Offs Who Farm Aura”: PAN

One of the legislators who most forcefully challenged Delgado’s performance was PAN member Laura Cristina Márquez, who warned of a probable “historic dropout” of 63,000 children at the elementary level and almost 640,000 young people in high school, and also reproached Delgado for not referring to the deficiencies in students’ learning and the cuts in funds for teacher training and retirees’ pensions.

The legislator asked him why the number of schools with poor infrastructure conditions supposedly has increased from 37 to 50 percent from 2022 to 2025, as well as about the causes of Mexico’s low results on the PISA test, especially in mathematics, reading comprehension, and science.

Likewise, she questioned “why he keeps (free) textbooks full of errors and loaded with ideology” and “why he allows the promotion of the culture of hatred and death.” Now on a roll, she told him that “families do not want empty promises, nor acrobatic speeches, nor show-offs who farm aura,” in reference to a video posted on the TikTok platform by the head of the SEP last August, in which he joined that youth trend.

Her fellow party member Liliana Ortiz Pérez also alluded to the video and complained to Delgado: “we want seriousness for all students, and it is not worthy of you to play with it. Good education is not farmed on TikTok: it is built in the classrooms and demonstrated with results.”

After warning about the increase in acts of violence in schools, the PAN deputy did not let go of the reference: “we don’t need your TikToks, but schools where students are protected. If you want to talk about aura, worry about restoring electricity to all the schools in Mexico.”

For her part, Xitlalic Ceja (PRI) indicated that under the Morena governments “education has been transformed into indoctrination” and questioned him: “if public education is so good, where do the children and grandchildren of the elite that governs the country today study? Why do they study in very expensive schools that millions of Mexicans cannot afford?”

Ignoring the calls from the secretary of the Committee, María Luisa Mendoza (PVEM), to end her remarks, having used up the three minutes agreed for all legislators, the PRI member repeated up to three times (amid shouts of protest from the majority bloc) that student scholarships must not be conditioned “in exchange for spurious votes and false promises.”

After the umpteenth request to finish speaking, and while Ceja lamented the “abandonment of teachers,” Mendoza ordered the audio of the microphone that the PRI deputy was still using to be cut off.

“They Get a Little Angry About the Scholarships”: Delgado

In response to the opposition’s criticisms, Delgado Carrillo said in a mocking tone that “some keep grumbling and get a little angry” because students at all educational levels receive financial support, reaching 22 million scholarship recipients in 2026, with an investment of 136 billion pesos.

In that regard, he stated that “before, young people became hitmen, but we turn them into scholarship holders. We are not the same (as the PRI and PAN); we do not give scholarships for electoral reasons,” and asserted that the school dropout rate last year was 9.3 percent, down from 14 percent in 2017.

Faced with complaints about the supposed “indoctrination” in the free textbooks, he retorted:

If giving them a framework of critical thinking is indoctrination, accuse us of indoctrination. If educating for freedom is indoctrination, accuse us of indoctrinating an entire generation to be free in a sovereign Mexico.

Mario Delgado, Secretary of Public Education