The politics of the educational decentralization in Mexico

In May of 1992 the Mexican federal government transferred to the 31 states responsibility over basic and teacher education. This decentralization strategy was at the core of an overall educational reform that began in late 1980s. The central government had strong motives to decentralize the educational institution because the highly centralized system was notoriously rigid, inefficient, conflict laden, unresponsive to the needs of local schools, unable to improve the quality of education, and frequently dominated by the National Teachers’ Union. The decentralization reform generated important institutional change in the states, some power shifts, and planted the seeds of a new organizational model for school management.