Thread: Mexicans Cope with High Public Education Costs

http://www.mexidata.info/id1024.html

August 28, 2006

Mexicans Cope with High Public Education Costs

Frontera NorteSur

Under the Mexican Constitution, children are guaranteed a free, lay public education through middle school. In practice, however, more and more parents are digging deeper into their pockets to keep their young ones in the classroom. As school children flock back to schools in Mexican border and other cities, stationery stores, clothing outlets and street vendors are doing a brisk business with customers like Rosa Velia Perez. A mother of three school-age children, the Ciudad Juarez resident said that on a recent shopping day she spent US$50 even before making the most expensive purchases.

The back-to-school shopping season is a busy time for merchants like Ciudad Juarez stationery store owner Manuel Robles, who was recently forced to have customers form lines in order to serve them, but the start of the school year can translate into bouts of economic anxiety for factory and other low-income workers, especially those with more than one child in school.

A pre-school year survey by the Diario de Juarez newspaper estimated that public school parents in the Chihuahua state border city could spend up to US$350 per child during the 2006-2007 academic year for a variety of school-related costs including registration fees, uniforms, clothing, supplies and year-round transportation. The estimate doesn't include monthly tuition costs and other "voluntary" donations sometimes solicited throughout the school year.

Across the border region, parent complaints are widespread about having to fork out their hard-earned pesos to pay for a "free" public education. Some Mexican immigrants in the United States cite high educational costs in their home country as a motive for moving north. Parent advocates charge that families are frequently pressured to pay registration fees and tuition. "The main problem we have is that (school) directors meddle in the affairs of the boards of directors of the parents' groups to force non-mandatory tuition payments," contended Marco Antonio Elejarza, the president of the Tamaulipas State Association of Parents.

Elejarza's complaint is a familiar one on the other side of border region in Baja California. In the first few weeks after registration got underway for the 2006-2007 school year, the Baja California Office of the Attorney General for Human Rights (PDH) accepted 54 complaints about illegal, mandatory tuition charges in public schools. Tijuana registered the majority of cases, with 36 separate complaints filed by early August.

Parents' organizations, elected officials and state authorities are tackling the problem of education costs in different ways. In Baja California, for instance, the PDH has launched a publicity campaign to inform parents where they can denounce legal violations. The official state human rights agency is also organizing a network of school-based parents' groups to monitor their schools' compliance with the law.

"Counting on this network of school observers, the PDH calls on the citizenry and mothers and fathers to join in and denounce improper charges, obligatory acquisitions of uniforms in certain businesses and mandatory retentions of documents during the start of classes," said Francisco Javier Sanchez Corona, Baja California's state human rights ombudsman.

Legislative action to bring educational costs in public schools under control has been under consideration in both Baja California and Chihuahua. This summer, the education and scientific committee of the Chihuahua State Legislature discussed a proposal to establish an emergency fund so schools can assist needy families with uniforms, books and other supplies. A commission of the Tijuana city council recently passed a proposal urging the Baja California State Legislature to pass a law that sanctions schools for forcing parents to pay registration and other fees.

"The purpose of this (resolution) is to avoid the excesses, the abuses and the violations of rights that the directors of many schools in this city and state commit in collusion with members of parents' associations, in flagrant violation of Article 3 of the Constitution," said Carlos Mejia Lopez, a city councilman for the PRD party.

At the federal level, the Federal Office of the Attorney General for Consumer Protection (PROFECO) helped organize back-to-school fairs in Tijuana and other cities where shoppers were offered opportunities to purchase necessary school supplies from private businesses for discount prices of up to 50 percent. Children were also offered haircuts and physical exams for half the normal prices. Meanwhile, the PROFECO office in Tamaulipas state announced it was conducting store inspections to make sure businesses are complying with price norms for school-related articles and not gouging customers.


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Sources: Diario de Juarez, July 26, August 2 and August 20, 2006. Articles by Guadalupe Felix and Ramon Chaparro. Frontera, August 2, 8, 11 and 19, 2006. Articles by Ana Cecilia Ramirez, Manuel Villegas, Fausto Ovalle, and Norma Valenzuela. Enlineadirecta.info, July 27 and August 11, 2006. Articles by Hugo Reyna and Gaston Monge. Norte, July 27 and August 6, 2006. Articles by Hugo Hernandez Jauregui and Moises Tabares.



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Frontera NorteSur (FNS)
Center for Latin American and Border Studies
New Mexico State University
Las Cruces, New Mexico

Originally Posted by Brian503a

http://www.mexidata.info/id1024.html

August 28, 2006

Mexicans Cope with High Public Education Costs

Frontera NorteSur

Under the Mexican Constitution, children are guaranteed a free, lay public education through middle school. In practice, however, more and more parents are digging deeper into their pockets to keep their young ones in the classroom. As school children flock back to schools in Mexican border and other cities, stationery stores, clothing outlets and street vendors are doing a brisk business with customers like Rosa Velia Perez. A mother of three school-age children, the Ciudad Juarez resident said that on a recent shopping day she spent US$50 even before making the most expensive purchases.

What! A Mexican mother of three in Mexico spent US$50 on school supplies before making more EXPENSIVE purchases. I'll have her know I spent at least $50 each for my two children for not much more than school supplies (you could add a little bit of clothing to this amount). Then there is clothing. Still the public schools in NC ask for routine stuff such as Kleenex and Hand Sanitizers right off and through the year many more supplies. They ask the most in elementary but when they become teenagers they want more and more parents to buy food (usually junk and soft drinks) for this party and that. They also do this in elementary and the fundraisers get on my nerves.

It's a handout throughout the school years not only with this but fundraisers for non-essential items the kids are supposed to hard sell their neighbors and relatives.

I don't want to hear about how bad Mexico's parents and school children fare. Many of them come to the USA to sponge off us - the taxpayers.

With the millions or is it billions taxpayers pay for public education, the schools still don't have enough money for all needs. I blame this on freeloading foreigners placing their children in public schools while they pay zero or hardly anything in taxes.