President proposes education reform

President Enrique Peña Nieto is proposing sweeping reforms to a public education system widely seen as moribund, taking on an iron-fisted union leader who is con- sidered the country’s most powerful woman and the main obstacle to change. The plan, with multi-party support, moves much of the control of the public education system to the federal government from the 1.5 million-member National Union of Education Workers, led for 23 years by union President Elba Esther Gordillo, who under current law hires and fires teachers and has been accused of using union funds as her personal pocket book.