ABSTRACT
Mexico has recently implemented a reform process aimed at transferring some aspects of basic education finance, administration, and governance from the central government to sub-national jurisdictions. 1 The aim of such reforms is primarily to improve educational outcomes. This chapter will briefly describe the decentralization reform process in Mexico and describe and attempt to explain trends in outcomes during the reform process. The time span of assessment is only four years, which makes asserting a definitive causal link between the reform process and outcomes unfeasible; nevertheless, we can connect the reform process with the development of certain policies and programs that appear likely to have a positive affect on outcomes. In particular, we highlight how state-level bureaucrats have used the new powers transferred to them to invest more heavily in preschool education--a strategy that is widely believed to improve dropout rates in primary and secondary education.
