Federalismo e financiamento da educação pública: uma análise da equidade fiscal na educação infantil e ensino fundamental nos municípios brasileiros

Abstract

The present dissertation is a contribution to the academic debate about the fiscal inequities between the federal entities in the Brazilian financing basic education. The main objective is to analyze the present format of financing basic education in Brazil in the perspective of equity in municipal revenues and expenses at the preschool and elementary education levels, considering fiscal data for the year 2015. For the analysis, the research combined qualitative and quantitative methods. Through the documentary research of laws and regulations, it was sought to understand the design of the basic education policy after CF-88, as well as the format of composition and distribution of the financial resources destined to this social policy. Through descriptive statistics, a diagnosis of the revenues of Fundeb and of the total expenses (Fundeb and other taxes) in the maintenance and development of education was made. The analyzes showed that the financing design incorporated elements to ensure equity, especially from redistributive funds (Fundef and Fundeb). In the case of Fundeb, the majority of municipal governments had an increase in resources, which indicates that if the fund did not exist, the poorest municipalities would have an annual value of expenses far below the other municipalities of their states. However, although Fundebs redistribution is an important instrument for reducing inequities among federated entities, it has not been sufficient to ensure wide equity throughout the national territory yet. The results found in this study indicate that the municipal expenditure per student in preschool and elementary education, considering the expenses with resources of Fundeb and other taxes not accounted for in the fund is expressively heterogeneous in Brazil. In general, the largest expenditures per student are located in municipalities in the Midwest, Southeast and South regions, to the detriment of the Northeast and North regions. The conclusion is that although Fundeb has advanced from the perspective of equity, a high degree of inequity persists in the financing basic education in municipalities.