Public schools in MX

Generally Mexican schools are not very good. Highschool is called Prepa here.

The average student would not qualify and they don't know English

They would need a sponsor for the US Visa

My impression from Mexican acquaintances who are not professionals, executives, business owners or bureaucrats is that Mexican public schools suck.  That's not to say some students don't excel, but anyone who can manage it, sends their kids to private schools.

My kids spent 4 years in a decent private school in Mexico.  Returning to Roswell, GA in 1986, they were accepted in freshman and junior years of high school without tests or other red tape.

I think where a Mexican student locates in the US might have a lot to do with acceotance or rejection.  There are a lot of immigrants in parts of the US who had public schooling here on into high school (secundaria or prepa.) 

English might be a requirement for a US student visa.  English proficiency depends more on the student than on the school, I think.

I hope this is some help. 

As an aside, public schools in the State of Veracruz have been closed and may still be closed because the state hasn't been paying the salaries and other obligations.  Oaxaca and other states have had turmoil over the quality of education, teacher competence and government interference.

I´ve got my kids enrolled in public school in Saltillo.   And I have a degree in education with 3 years´ teaching experience (so my observations aren´t just off the cuff). 

Our original plan was to enroll our kids in private schools, as neither my Mexican husband or I had any experience with public schools, and popular opinion is rather negative.  However, when I was visiting schools when I was about to register my daughter for preschool, the private schools wanted to have about 20 kids enrolled in each class, and I noticed that the public preschool by by house had roughly the same teacher to student ratio. 

As my only educational goals for my daughter for preschool were for her to solidify her Spanish and socialize, I figured we´d save a bit of money and try the public option--and I was not disappointed! 

The teachers do the best they can on limited resources--but that´s often true at private schools, too.  Furthermore, particularly in the younger grades, some private schools will hire teachers that do not have a degree in education (at other private schools, all the teachers are very qualified  . . . there´s private schools and then there are private schools, and it´s hard to know which are the good ones until you´re halfway through the school year).  But in public schools, all the teachers have education degrees--even in preschool. 

We were happy enough with the preschool education that our kids are continuing on in public school for elementary school. 

As with my initial observations, look for low teacher to student ratios.  In other areas that are growing rapidly, it might be possible to have 40 kids in one class.  If that were the case in my neighborhood, we would have splurged on private education.  But if the public school and private school ratios are roughly the same, it could be worth a try!  After all, your kids know English already, right?  So they don´t necessarily NEED that advantage that comes with a bilingual school.

And if it turns out that public school does not work for your family, you certainly have other options!  (And yes, it seems homeschool is beginning to be a "thing" here, but I don´t have a ton of information on that--even less in Tampico!  I have heard about a homeschooling group in Saltillo, though.)   

Back to your question if a Mexican public school diploma can get a graduate into college in the US . . . I don´t know on that.

My kids went to 6 of primaria, 1 & 2 of secundaria and the older one 1 of prepa in Saltillo.  Cumbres and el Tequito.  They were highly recommended and convenient to where we lived on Punta del este.  That was 30 years ago.Mexican and American had kids in both public and private schools.  The Americans tended toward private, the Mexicans toward public.  Results were mixed for both.

As I already wrote, both did well and gained a lot from the experience.  They both made friends at all levels of Mexican society.  They picked up Spanish quickly and in spite of an incompetent English teacher from Germany, their English developed at a rate equal or better than their US counterparts.

Concerns for preschoolers are different and I would question your choice.  I was back and was impressed how much it had grown.  I passed through frequently on the bus from 2008 to 2015 noting evolutionary change.

Best wishes for a rewarding stay.