Novo Fundeb como instrumento de redução de desigualdades: avanços e limites

Abstract

The present dissertation offers an analysis of the New Fundeb (Fund for the Maintenance and Development of Basic Education and the Valorization of Education Professionals), approved on December 25th, 2020. In broad terms, the New Fundeb presents the three federal funding modalities: the Annual Student Value (VAAF), the Annual Total Student Value (VAAT), and the Result-Based Annual Student Value (VAAR). The Fund aims to promote universal access, quality, and equity, aligning with efforts to reduce inequalities, which leads to the central research problem of this study: How does the category of “reducing inequalities” is implemented in the New Fundeb, considering how the Union’s funding supplements (VAAF, VAAT, and VAAR) and the equity principles established in the legislation affect the financing of basic education and contribute – or fail to contribute – to reducing regional, social, and educational disparities in Brazil? The study is structured into four chapters: the first one discusses the relationship between the modern State and social and educational policies within capitalist society. The second chapter investigates the historical background of Brazil’s fund-based education financing policy: Fundef, Fundeb, and the New Fundeb. The third one addresses the concept of equality and identifies the equity principles and the category of “reducing inequalities” expressed through the VAAF, VAAT, and VAAR supplementation mechanisms. And finally, the last chapter consists of an analysis of educational data from 2021 to 2025, collected from ordinances published in the Official Gazette of the Federal Government. The methodology adopted consists of an exploratory study adopting a qualitative approach, conducted through bibliographic and documentary research. The findings suggest that the VAAF and VAAT funding supplements are intended to reduce inequalities through a poverty-alleviation policy framework, as they are allocated to federative entities with limited tax revenues within the Fundeb funding base and that are unable to guarantee the national minimum per-student value. Regarding the VAAR federal funding supplement, its inequality-reduction rationale appears to be linked to merit-based criteria that favor the “most capable” federative entities. It is concluded that the equity principles adopted in the New Fundeb are operationalized through the eligibility criteria and requirements established for each type of supplementation. However, even when a federative entity benefits from transfers of federal funds, this does not necessarily mean overcoming its historical inequalities. The equity framework proposed under the New Fundeb constitutes a State strategy to manage regional, social, and educational inequalities and to sustain the reproduction of existing social conditions. Thus, although it may, to some extent reduce inequalities, it also operates as an ideological category, insofar as social inequalities are embedded in – and necessary to – the logic of capital.