Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Alonso Lujambio: A great academic, yet a pathetically timid secretary of education

It seems by now clear that Alonso Lujambio, secretary of education, will do absolutely nothing to stop the SNTE teacher union from, in Baja California Sur, handing out propaganda material for its PANAL party to children, soliciting sensitive information from them and their parents, and using schools for open political activities in favor of PANAL, such as forcing children to stuff envelopes in Mexico State.

Lujambio first said schools "under no circumstances should be places for political proselytizing," yet then quickly dismissed the occurrences as "an isolated event" - which it is not - and in a sorry display of Pontius Pilate-like hand washing, said the matter belonged with electoral and legal authorities, not with the secretary of education. It was a remarkably open admittance that Lujambio will do absolutely nothing to stand up to the all-to-powerful Elba Esther Gordillo. How on earth is it possible to simply dismiss this as "it is not my responsibility"? You are the secretary of education!

At least in Baja California Sur, SNTE dissidents opposed to Gordillo has denounced  the matter to the attorney general. Several deputies in Congress have demanded that the federal government cut SNTE's funding and privileges. Wherever any action may come from as a result of SNTE/PANAL's outrageous actions, one is hard pressed to expect anything at all from Alonso Lujambio Irazábal -  a great academic (and a PhD from Yale) yet a man, we now know, with unfortunately very little political backbone.

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