THEIR REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT (via Brandon):

Wall Street has begun to worry that the delay in passing the first step of the education law--which would make teacher evaluations mandatory and allow poorly performing teachers to be dismissed--could set back Mr. Peña Nieto's ambitious plans.

"We view the fact that Congress has not yet approved the law...as creating a bad precedent," wrote Citi Research in a research note Monday. "This could energize movements opposed to other reforms."

The union blames Mexico's poor state of education--which the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development ranks near the bottom of its membership--on inadequate funds. It says Mr. Peña Nieto's proposal effectively privatizes schools and doesn't take into account Mexico's indigenous cultures. Its members also say the law threatens their labor rights and vow not to back down. [...]

Critics of the union say that far from being concerned about the education of their students, many of teachers want to protect lifetime jobs that they say are sold or often passed from generation to generation.

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