Fundeb: Chamber approves regulation law without sections that would draw R $ 16 billion from the public network | Politics

The text was approved without the extracts that, in practice, could draw around R $ 16 billion from the public network. These points were initially approved by the House, but were withdrawn by the Senate.

One of the changes made room for private nonprofit schools, whether philanthropic or religious, to also receive public money. The rule would apply even to schools connected to System S (Senai, Sesi, Senac, Sesc).

Currently, the Constitution already allows the transfer of federal funds to private, nonprofit schools – community, denominational and philanthropic schools – whenever there is a shortage of places.

After voting on the text that came out of the Senate, the deputies even came to analyze a highlight of the Novo party that sought to restore part of the controversial rules. The parliamentarians of the acronym tried to reincorporate the transfer to private non-profit schools, such as those linked to churches (confessional), for primary and secondary school enrollment.

According to the calculation of the National Campaign for Education, this measure alone could withdraw up to R $ 10.2 billion from the public network. The government even ordered the allied base to vote in that direction, but the Novo’s leadership was rejected in plenary by 286 to 163 votes.

Centrão, the government’s support base, came to present a similar highlight, but ended up giving up on the change.

Behind the scenes, the Executive articulates the edition of a provisional measure to rescue points withdrawn by the Senate – even if the resources for individuals do not come from Fundeb, but from another source.

In August, Congress enacted an amendment to the Constitution to make Fundeb permanent and update its rules. That vote that specified the division of money was missing.

In the case of secondary and primary education, however, experts point out that there is no shortage of enrollments in the public system.

“What is missing is a resource for these schools,” says Daniel Cara, director of the National Campaign for the Right to Education and professor at the Faculty of Education of the University of São Paulo (USP).

The changes made initially by the Chamber, and already withdrawn by the Senate, would allow the transfer to secondary and primary education even if there were vacancies in the public network.

Another controversy, now eliminated from the text, would allow the payment of professionals who work in community, confessional or philanthropic institutions with the part of the resources originally destined to the salary of education professionals.

Promulgated in August by the National Congress, the new Fundeb became part of the Constitution and became a permanent fund, which will take effect in January. Before, the fund had an expiration date and would end at the end of 2020.

The change also expanded federal transfers. Today, this supplementation of the Union is 10% higher than the amount collected by state governments and municipalities; the percentage should reach 23% in 2026.

The fund was created with the objective of reducing inequalities and guaranteeing a minimum amount per student to invest in each city of the country, in kindergartens, primary and secondary schools, as well as in youth and adult education (EJA).

Among other points, the project defines the Cost of Student Quality (CAQ), provided for in the constitutional reform promulgated by Congress.

The CAQ is an educational financing parameter foreseen in the National Education Plan (PNE), which defines the investment per student to guarantee the quality of education.

The text determines the division of the complementation of the Union as follows:

• 10 percentage points will follow the distribution rules in force, so that the poorest states that receive the Union supplement will reach the minimum standard.
• 10.5 percentage points will be distributed to municipal, state or district public educational networks that do not reach the total annual value per student (VAAT), a distribution parameter created based on the financing capacity of the educational networks.
• Supplementation of 2.5 percentage points based on the annual value per student (VAAR), which will be distributed according to the fulfillment of conditions and evolution of the indicators, to be defined, of service and improvement of learning with reduction of inequalities.

Part of the Union complementation (2.5 percentage points) must follow some criteria, such as:

• technical parameters of merit and performance to occupy the position of school principal;
• participation of at least 80% of students in basic education assessments;
• reduction of socioeconomic and racial inequalities in education, measured in assessment tests.

The constitutional reform that established the new Fundeb determined that at least 70% of Fundeb is used to pay the salaries of education professionals. The draft regulation also extended the possibility to psychologists and social service professionals.