Central Subjects in Legislative Debates on the «Deslaicization» of Laic Education in México (1992-1993)

Abstract

As part of a project to modernize the State, the reestablishment of diplomatic relations with The Vatican and the reconfiguration of the relationship between the government and the Catholic Church in Mexico, in 1992 president Carlos Salinas de Gortari presented at the National Congress a constitutional reform project in educational policy. This reform allowed religious teaching in private schools, which had been banned since 1917. In this way the regime of educational laicism was reduced, this being the reason why we call it a process of «de-laicization». Our purpose here is to analyze the core of the discussions in parliamentary debates regarding the transformation of the regimen of secular (lay) education in Mexico during the LV Legislature (1991-1994). The main objective is to examine the changes in relation to the national education system established in the Constitution of 1917. We are interested in clarifying its antecedents, investigating the main points of the presidential project and the legislative procedure that was followed from the time the proposal of the constitutional reform was presented until it came into effect. Finally, we identify the positions, arguments, themes, and proposals that were addressed in Parliament as well as  the negotiations and the agreements reached in order to achieve the constitutional reform of the 3^rd article  of the Constitution in the subject of secular education.