“Making Mexican education more effective, and making sure that Mexicans receive an education that opens up the possibility of meaningful university and college careers afterwards, will be essential if Mexico is to take advantage of the current economic optimism prevailing in the country, and to use it as a steppingstone to an economy based on skilled labor,” said Duncan Wood, director of the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute in Washington.

Yesterday’s PGR arrest of Elba Esther Gordillo on charges of embezzlement marks a bold step forward by the Pena Nieto administration to establish its authority and legitimacy in the eyes of the Mexican public, and to send a message to Mexico’s most powerful unions. The arrest comes after the successful passage of an education reform bill through Congress, earning the government plaudits from international observers, who saw it as a much-needed attack on the power of the teachers union, the SNTE, but receiving a skeptical response from many national critics who believed that the government would not follow through with implementation of the new laws.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has announced widespread changes to Mexico’s federal security forces. As these changes begin to take shape, we spoke with two of Mexico’s leading experts on police reform to discuss the current state of reform efforts and the issues that the Peña Nieto government must address.

If these assumptions hold true, Wilson says, “144,000 new U.S. jobs could be created due to Mexico's economic growth in 2011.” A modest figure, considering America's jobs shortage right now, Wilson concedes. “But that's with everything else being equal,” he explains. “If we don't do anything else to stimulate trade, we can at least count on the growth rate to create jobs.”