Argentina: subnational experiences of educational improvement in a context of federal inequality

• In Event: Latin America SIG Highlighted Session: Unfolding the black box of systems improvement: A comparative study of twelve subnational cases in Latin America

Proposal

Argentina’s federalism is structured under a principle of double sovereignty, shared between the federal government and 24 subnational jurisdictions (23 provinces and one federal district). Since the transfer of schools to the subnational realm was completed in the early 1990s, provinces are responsible for most educational services.
Deep inequalities of different kinds exist among provinces. Apart from those rooted in historical causes, a thick layer of fiscal disparities covers the Argentine territory. The federal tax revenue sharing scheme treats very differently provinces with similar levels of human development (Mezzadra & Rivas, 2005), and strongly determines educational investment. With similar levels of financial effort, investment per student in Tierra del Fuego tripled that of Tucumán in 2017. Also, the achievement gap among provinces is striking. Moreover, provinces differ widely in terms of the technical skills pool within their ministries and inspection bodies.
In this context, the role played by the National Ministry of Education through the transfer of funds for the implementation of education policies and the provision of technical assistance is crucial because of its potential compensatory effects. After an initial period during the nineties where responsibilities had been transferred to the provinces with scarce resources attached, during the 2000s the national government created a fund for compensating inequalities in teacher wages and transferred great amount of resources to the provinces, although its redistributive impact could have been stronger (Bezem, Mezzadra, & Rivas, 2012). More recently, the amount of transfers to provinces was reduced, while increasing the amount of tax revenues shared to the provinces. This movement did not particularly benefit the education sector, which lost budgetary weight against other provincial priorities: in fact, provincial educational budgets decreased.
As a result of this swinging behavior of Argentine educational federalism (Rivas, 2009), one can find a quite heterogeneous map of provinces as regards education policy agendas in the recent past. While some of them reveal important deals of provincial autonomy; at the other end, some are mere implementers of national initiatives.
Our study approaches the paths taken in educational policy matters by Córdoba and Río Negro, two subnational states which show signs of educational improvement during the last decade and a half. The analysis reveals the positive effects of cohesive and stable educational administrations, especially when supported by the highest executive authority (governors) and backed by robust educational budgets. With quite distinct traditions and following different management styles, both provinces have combined policies for the expansion of educational opportunities prioritizing the most vulnerable students, with experiences of educational innovation which oxygenated the system. Altogether, these initiatives have pushed educational indicators forward.

Authors

• Axel Rivas, Universidad de San Andrés

• María Belén Sanchez, Universidad de San Andrés