Financiamento da educação infantil no contexto do Fundeb permanente

Abstract

The Doctoral Thesis in Education linked to the research line State, Policies, and History of Education was developed in the Graduate Program in Education, Faculty of Education, Federal University of Goiás (PPGE/FE/UFG). The Thesis aims to analyze the resources allocated to early childhood education in the context of the implementation of the permanent Fundeb (2021-2023), focusing on supplementing the Total Student Year Value (VAAT), in order to verify its complementary potential for the realization of the right to early childhood education. The permanent Fundeb was approved by Constitutional Amendment 108/2020 and allocated 50% of the global resources of the VAAT supplement to early childhood education, to be paid in 10.5% of the fund's revenues by 2026. As for the methodology, a literature review and analysis of qualitative and quantitative information from and/or produced from documentary sources and official databases were used. A total of 2,406 municipalities benefiting from VAAT between 2021 and 2023 were examined, considering population profile, early childhood education coverage, Total Annual Student Value for Early Childhood Education (VAAT-EI) and Fundeb values, as well as data on resources committed by the three levels of government, extracted from the Federal Government's Integrated Planning and Budget System (SIOP) and the Brazilian Public Sector Accounting and Tax Information System (SICONFI) of the states/Federal District and municipalities, for the period from 2015 to 2023. The theoretical basis was mainly anchored in the studies by Alves et al. (2020), Amaral (2012, 2023), Amaral et al. (2021), Farenzena and Pinto (2024), Fernandes and Bassi (2021), Oliveira, Rodrigues, and Souza (2015), Pereira et al. (2023), Saad-Filho and Morais (2018), Simões and Alves (2021), and Tanno (2017, 2019, 2020, 2022), addressed the context of discussion, approval, and implementation of the permanent Fundeb, the analysis of resources allocated to early childhood education, and the indicators of attendance at this stage of basic education. The results show that most of the municipalities benefiting from VAAT-EI are small, located in the North and Northeast, regions that historically have had less capacity to generate their own revenue and greater dependence on intergovernmental transfers. Between 2019 and 2023, these municipalities registered 283,318 new enrollments in early childhood education, corresponding to a 12% increase in the attendance rate. During the period analyzed, R$ 14.7 billion was allocated to early childhood education, equivalent to 11% of the Fundeb resources distributed to these municipalities. In 2023, VAAT supplement funds allocated to early childhood education totaled R$ 7.26 billion, representing 17% of the funds allocated to public daycare and preschool enrollment by Fundeb with the Fundeb Student Year Value (VAAF) supplement. However, when compared to total early childhood education resources, they accounted for only 10%. These results show that VAAT-EI acts as an additional complement to intra-state equalization distribution, but does not significantly expand the capacity to equalize early childhood education provision at the national level, as only a small proportion of municipalities receive significant resources. Even so, it has the potential to have a significant impact on networks that receive a significant volume of resources in relation to Fundeb or education-related revenues. As a scientific contribution, the study offers a diagnosis of the impacts of the permanent Fundeb VAAT supplement on early childhood education, highlighting advances and limitations.