O Poder legislativo e as políticas públicas educacionais no período 1995-2010

Abstract

This work discusses the role of the Brazilian Congress, in defining public policies in education. We examine the contents of about fifteen hundred bills and proposed constitutional amendments submitted by deputies in legislatures between the years 1995 and 2007. We also conducted three case studies on two structural issues of educational policy: education funding and evaluation of higher education. In such cases, we analyzed the proposals for constitutional amendments and their respective regulatory bills, the amendments made by parliamentarians, and the texts that finally became law. The results confirm other studies showing that the initiative of parliamentarians in some policy areas such as education, is not predominantly linked to particularistic interests or facing the distribution of concentrated benefits. It is revealed the predominance of legislative initiatives that aimed at diffuse benefits, regardless of party ties. The study shows that in the more structural issues of public educational policies, normally submitted to Congress by the President, there is a significant intervention by the Legislature, through the submission and approval of amendments, which significantly change the original texts of the propositions, often leading to the adoption of texts with different orientation than that originally intended by the Executive Branch. The texts are not a bunch of particularistic amendments, but contributions to the improvement of legislation, which reflect a broad trading around consensual lines of politics. They also show that the alternation of political parties in the Executive Branch has not determined break of those policies, but continued improvement or extension of coverage. Different governments, with diverse parliamentary support and decisive participation of the Legislature, promoted a radical change in the funding of public education, implementing procedures of redistribution of resources involving the three spheres of the Brazilian federation. These initiatives shape innovation in public policy education, establishing a new pattern of funding. In the field of higher education assessment, innovative policies and procedures were also introduced, with significant action of Congress.