Miguel Castro Reynoso, who prior to his current run for governor of Jalisco was a state congressman and mayor of Tlaquepaque, has unveiled an education program he intends to implement upon his hoped-for election.
Known in English as “Bilingual Jalisco,” its aim is make Jalisco the first completely bilingual state in Mexico by 2030.
“[The program’s] fundamental objective is that our students be provided with well-trained, professional teachers who are masters of the language and pedagogy, so that they may achieve mastery over the second language,” said Castro. “It’s the most ambitious program ever of its kind to be undertaken in this country.”
To underwrite a program that no doubt will come with a staggering price tag is no easy matter. However, Castro has a plan: the program will be financed by the approximately 400 million pesos in fotoinfacciones (speed camera fines) that fill Jalisco’s coffers each year.
This scheme will likely add considerable bureaucratic complexity to an already complicated process of obtaining enough teachers possessed of the program’s requisite level of pedagogical and linguistic proficiency to convert the youth of Jalisco into a horde of fluent anglophones.