Mexican Public Education at Risk Again

ByPartido Popular Socialista de México

This statement was released by the Partido Popular Socialista de México on February 15, 2026.

Editor’s note: Mario Delgado Carrillo is Mexico’s current Secretary of Public Education, who previously supported President Enrique Peña Nieto’s neoliberal education reforms when Delgado was a member of the Partido de la Revolución Democrática. Marx Arriaga is a Mexican civil servant who worked in the Secretariat of Public Education and was responsible for educational materials, including public school textbooks of the New Mexican School, which were heavily criticized by the Mexican right wing for their content and for being inspired by the pedagogy of Paulo Freire, as well as by the CNTE (class-conscious teachers union) and other elements of the left for being a top-down imposition, and not incorporating the knowledge of Mexican teachers. Marx Arriaga was appointed by President AMLO in 2021, and was removed by Mario Delgado in mid-February.

Mario Delgado Carrillo, enemy of the “New Mexican School,” must be relieved of his post.

Public education in our country has been contested by progressive and revolutionary forces and conservative and counter-revolutionary forces throughout our history. A reform by progressive and revolutionary forces is followed by a counter-reform by opposing forces, and vice versa.

In the contemporary period, beginning in 1982, changes began in the superstructure, in the legal order: Constitutional Articles 27, 28, 3, 123, and 130, fundamentally, underwent counter-reforms that modified the base, the economic structure on which the Mexican State rested, moving from state capitalism to a dependent market economy (neoliberal State); in the case of education, as the role of the State changed, its orientation also changed.

Why does this dispute occur? Because education can be a weapon for emancipation, for the liberation of our people, or it can serve for their domination, to subjugate them. For this reason, education has never been neutral; it has always responded to the interests of the sector of the social class that holds the government, that is at the head of the State.

Therefore, the fundamental problem of education in all historical stages and for all peoples has been the following: What kind of human being should be formed? Another problem that follows: Who educates? The State or private individuals?

In Mexico, starting in 1982, the nationalist sector of the ruling bourgeoisie was displaced by another sector with a neoliberal mentality dependent on the directives of the big bourgeoisie and the instruments of foreign domination: OECD, World Bank, IMF, IDB, World Bank, even USAID.

Thus, public education in our country changed its orientation; it ceased to be a weapon of emancipation and became an instrument of domination at the service of big capital, both national and foreign, so that Mexicans would only learn to read, count, and obey, in addition to promoting and strengthening private education; that is, they privatized and commodified it.

They turned education into a commodity, into a business; therefore, it ceased to be a social right and became a privilege.

Despite the constitutional reforms, imposed by neoliberal governments from 1982 until that of Enrique Peña Nieto, promulgated on February 25, 2013, five advanced theses remained in Article Three of our Constitution, against the will of reactionary sectors: one on the orientation of teaching; another on the concept of democracy; another on the doctrine of nationalism; another on human relations; and, finally, another on the educational function of the State.

If these theses are analyzed, it will be concluded that they all converge on a single purpose: to establish the qualities of the type of human being that should be formed, which also corresponds to the nation-building project that emerged from the Mexican Revolution. It also raises the objective of coverage, stating that all education provided by the State will be free. No developed or underdeveloped capitalist country has a statute on education like ours

Peña Nieto’s education reform can be considered the culmination of all neoliberal reforms in education, because its aim was to eliminate the teaching profession and transform its high function into a kind of occasional job that anyone could do and, therefore, work without labor rights.

With the arrival of Andrés Manuel López Obrador to the Presidency, he promised as a campaign promise to overturn Peña Nieto’s reform. He did so, but only partially. He made positive changes, but they were still limited. However, he charted the course for what he called the New Mexican School, progressively changing the orientation of the curricula at different educational levels and, logically, also introducing new content for the free textbooks

This unleashed the fury of conservative and counterrevolutionary forces, both internal and external, because not only were there these changes, but the New Mexican School no longer promoted private education and ended the lucrative business of the large publishing companies that printed billions of free textbooks and all kinds of educational materials, in addition to other profitable businesses involving public officials and national and foreign businesspeople.

However, a serious mistake made by the two progressive governments we have had, both that of López Obrador and that of Dr. Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, is having placed at the head of the Secretariat of Public Education (SEP) two figures openly opposed to public education, two individuals with a neoliberal mentality who are not distinguished by their honor and honesty: Esteban Moctezuma Barragán, first, and now Mario Delgado Carrillo

The latter has been carrying out a subversive campaign, installing public officials from his own faction, establishing links with counterrevolutionary political forces and with representatives of large commercial enterprises. His purpose is to recover, by any means necessary, the spaces, businesses, and privileges they lost during the administration of President López Obrador.

Hence the viciousness with which Dr. Marx Arriaga Navarro was treated, who, as Director of Educational Materials at the SEP (Ministry of Public Education), spearheaded the reform of the educational content of free textbooks and who advised that their printing should once again be a task for the State

So it’s not just the dismissal of the official outside the bounds of legality, but what lies behind this decision: an attempt to reverse progress, undo the advances made by the previous administration, and try to privatize and commodify public education once again. In short, to turn public education back into a means to dominate and subjugate our people and, moreover, into a big business.

We hope that President Claudia Sheinbaum will not allow it.

Partido Popular Socialista de México