Ley Orgánica de Instrucción Pública

After defeating the Second Empire, President Benito Juárez’s government issued the Organic Law of Public Instruction on December 2, 1867. Drafted by a commission led by the physician and philosopher Gabino Barreda, it made primary education in the Federal District free and compulsory and reduced religious influence in the classroom.

The same law created the National Preparatory School, which opened in 1868 and became the cradle of positivist education in Mexico.