The Education System of Brazil: Financing of Education in Brazil

Abstract

The chapter presents the main characteristics of education financing in Brazil, analyzing the sources, and destination of resources. The data show a broad educational system, with 40 million of students; 700 schools managed by the central government; 31 thousand by the states; 113 thousand by the municipalities; and 40 thousand by the private sector. Expenditure per student in public schools corresponds to one third of the average for OECD countries and at least one fifth of the tuition fees for elite private schools. In order to face the challenges of attainment deficits, the low quality associated with the low value of spending per student and the inequalities between regions and types of school; the country adopted, in 1998, a policy of funds for financing education (FUNDEB) and, in 2014, approved a National Education Plan (PNE), which determines a progressive increase in public spending on education in order to reach 10% of GDP by 2024 with the aim of redress the historic educational debt with the most vulnerable sectors of the population. However, with the change of government, in 2019, and with new guidelines for social spending and with recessive economic policies, there is little chance of meeting the goals of the PNE.