How philanthrocapitalists impact decision making of public education in Brazil: the cases of São Paulo, Pará and Pernambuco states

• In Event: Highlighted session: Shaping the education landscape in Latin America: politics, community, parents, and philanthropy

Proposal

In allusion to the work of Bishop and Green (2008), the study analyzes the functioning of "bi-partite" governance bodies that focus on decision making and monitoring of education policies, which take on a ‘salvationist’ role regarding public education in three states of Brazil from different regions: São Paulo (south east region), Pará (north region) and Pernambuco (northeast region). Such bodies are integrated by private social investment organizations, the consultancy market, investment banks and government-appointed officials.

In Brazil the extensive process of redefinition of the organization and functioning of the State begins in the 1990s, giving rise to reforms that demanded the decentralization of the structure of the State apparatus, the transfer of responsibility for the provision of public services to local governments, the incorporation of managerial ideas in public debate and specially the induction of partnerships between State and private sector for the provision of public services. Since then the participation of private actors in public education has been operating in three dimensions: privatization of the educational offer, privatization of the curriculum and more recently privatization of education management. The latter is investigated in this work. The transfer of the management of educational systems to profitable private organizations is one of the most recent forms of privatization of educational management. Several private groups, also known as philantrocapitalists, have been acting in public education in Brazil through their "social arms" (Adrião, 2017).

The three states considered in this work have defended the introduction of results-based management since 2011. With the intention to improve educational levels, state governments calls on "society" to improve public education. Agreements are then signed with private institutions for the planning and management of educational policy. These formations are named in different ways in the three states: Pact for Education in Pará (Ceccon, 2018); Education – Commitment of São Paulo and the Pernambuco Education Pact (Adrião & Garcia, 2014), all of which have in common to function as a governance structure (Clade, 2014; Croso & Magalhães, 2016) within the state, differing from the external political networks of advocacy or the indirect representation of private interests through election or appointment to public office.

In order to produce this reflection, the study considered institutional documents and information published on official government websites, as well as the academic production that investigates the private sector's performance in public education. The study indicated: a symbiosis between private sector interests and the implemented policies; lack of transparency in the allocation of public funds and the presence of the same national organizations and of different local business groups in the three governance bodies investigated.


References

ADRIÃO, T. The privatization of basic education in Brazil: considerations on the incidence of corporations in the management of public education. In: ARAÚJO, L. e PINTO, J. M. R (orgs). Public X private in times of coup. São Paulo: Fundação Lauro Campos and Fineduca, 2017, p.16-37.

ADRIÃO, T., GARCIA, T. Public subsidy to the private sector: reflections on the management of the public school in Brazil. Educational Policies, Porto Alegre, v. 7, n. 2, p. 110-122, 2014.

BISHOP, M.; GREEN, M. How Giving can Save the World. Bloomsbury Press, 2008.

CECCON, E. C. Destination of Resources for Maintenance and Development of Teaching: mapping of transfers to the private sector in Minas Gerais and Pará. 2018. Dissertation (Masters in Education) – School of Education, University of Campinas, Campinas.

CLADE - Latin American Campaign for the Right to Education. Mapping on Trends in the Privatization of Education in Latin America and the Caribbean. São Paulo: CLADE, 2014.

CROSO, C.; MAGALHÃES, G. N. Privatization in education in Latin America and the Caribbean: trends and risks to public school systems. Education & Society, Campinas, v. 37, n. 134, p.17-33, jan/mar., 2016.

Authors

• Theresa Adrião, State University of Campinas (UNICAMP)

• Camilla Croso, Latina American Campaign for the Right to Education

• Thais Rodrigues Marin, University of Campinas - Brazil