Mexico's education system among the world's worst

In a survey of 15-year-olds in 30 developed nations, Mexico ranked last in reading comprehension, according to a study released last month by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The country's educational system is woeful, according to an article this week in the Washington Post and to many education experts.

A new book called "Los Socios de Elba Ester," by political analyst Ricardo Raphael, explains that Mexico's National Union of Educational Workers (SNTE) is largely to blame. The SNTE is the biggest and most powerful union in all of the Americas and it's run by Elba Ester Gordillo, an old-school power boss.

She was given control of the SNTE by President Carlos Salinas de Gortari in 1989, and since then her political and economic power has continued to grow.

Gordillo has operatives stationed in virtually every town and city all across Mexico and she controls millions of dollars, that come in great part from the federal government and from fees paid by tens of thousands of school teachers.

Annual teachers' fees alone amount some $900 million pesos a year, according the author, Ricardo Raphael.