Money from education with fewer and fewer children in the country – 03/27/2024 – Vinicius Torres Freire

Between 2003 and 2005, an average of 3.36 million children were born per year in Brazil. In 2022, there were 2.56 million, according to the Civil Registry Statistics survey, by IBGE, released this Wednesday (27). There are 740 thousand fewer babies.

These children should have entered some kind of nursery school in the year 2024. Not all of them, in fact. Our fierce indifference leaves a lot of children to die for cruelly stupid and preventable reasons. In 2022, more than 33 thousand children up to 4 years of age died.

Almost certainly, many of those 2022 babies are not in some kind of educational institution. In 2023, more than 41% of 2- and 3-year-old children were out of school. More precisely, the schooling rate was 58.5%, according to Pnad Educação, another IBGE survey. Of the children aged 0 to 3 who were without school or similar facilities, such as daycare, almost 31% did not find a place.

The country spends more on education, but children do not have daycare or early childhood education, particularly the poorest.

Without early childhood education, they will not be well prepared for literacy (among many other social and economic problems caused by this shortage). If they are not well literate, they will generally have problems at school.

The country spends more on education and ages very quickly — it has relatively fewer children. By arithmetic, there would be more resources per capita.

There must be even more because, for example, since 2021 the federal government’s contribution to Fundeb (the sum of resources for basic education) has increased, as per a constitutional determination approved in 2020.

From 10% of the fund in 2020, the federal part went to 12% in 2021, it will reach 19% this year and 23% in 2026. The increase in GDP and tax revenue above population growth also increases the money dedicated the education.

This week, the federal government proposed the “Interest for Education” plan. If states create more technical education vacancies, they will pay lower interest rates on their debt with the Union.

In general terms, it doesn’t make sense. States often obtain debt forgiveness, the most bankrupt do not pay their bills, they give money to companies, recurring amnesties encourage irresponsible behavior. Furthermore, the federal government’s financial income will decrease, when it is precisely trying to reduce the debt.

In practice, however, at the limit the federal government would no longer receive R$8 billion per year from the states, which is not even 0.1% of GDP. General public debt is 75% of GDP.

But it is this type of calculation that also leads us to waste resources or choose the wrong priorities.

More technical education can lead to good things. It can prevent teenagers from dropping out of high school, which often does not offer the prospect of a better job or a good (or affordable) college; can improve the scarce or poor qualifications of the workforce. Etc.

Why, however, does this extra federal aid, “Interest for Education”, have to go to states, in fact to some of the richest, most indebted and irresponsible?

Because this would be a condition for reducing interest on the debt with the Union, a solution that the federal government invented so that this debt forgiveness would not come for free or be spent on pure nonsense. And because states take care of secondary education.

But is this how the whole thing will be decided? In the cry of smart governors, to use a mild word?

Is it necessary to spend more on education, considering the scarcity of resources and other priorities? It should also be taken into account that the increase in spending has not resulted in better education. Finally, will the states meet these technical education goals? Hmm.

And what to do about the lack of daycare centers and the many that are mere shelters for children?

The level of our public conversation is very bad.

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