Quota Law: Chamber approves new rules in education – 08/09/2023 – Education

The Chamber of Deputies approved this Wednesday night (9) a bill that updates the Quota Law in federal public education. The approval of the proposal paves the way for the vacancy reservation rules to remain valid until 2033.

The previous law predicted that the quota system should be reviewed in 2022, a decade after the law was sanctioned, but deputies postponed the revision of the project. Now, the House has symbolically approved the changes – which go to the Senate.

The proposal envisages changes on different fronts. For example, the inclusion of quilombolas among the groups benefited by the reservation of vacancies.

In addition, the text reduces the maximum per capita family income of the candidate for quotas (from 1.5 minimum wages to 1), in addition to creating policies aimed at postgraduate studies (for blacks, indigenous peoples, quilombolas and people with disabilities) and the need for program evaluation every ten years with annual monitoring cycles.

The law, in force since 2012, guarantees that half of the vacancies in federal institutes and universities are for students who attended the public school system. It also provides for other quotas for low-income, black, indigenous and disabled students within the half reserved for people from public schools.

The proposal’s rapporteur, deputy Dandara (PT-MG), stated that the vacancy reservation policy was responsible for its formation. “I am very proud to have been a shareholder in undergraduate and postgraduate studies. If it weren’t for the Quota Law, I wouldn’t be here”, she said.

She highlights as an advance of the revision of the law the prediction that, if the student gets enough grade to be approved by the general system, he does not need to enter by quotas.

“It is a breakthrough that the quota is no longer the ceiling. It is the floor, because first it considers the student’s grade and then the quota. USP has already made this improvement”, says the deputy.

The approval of the bill, authored by Congresswoman Maria do Rosário (PT-RS), was accompanied by Minister Anielle Franco (Racial Equality).

PSD leader Antônio Britto (PSD-BA) classified the moment as historic. Deputy Hélio Lopes (PL-RJ) spoke out against the project in plenary.

Deputies estimate that the Chamber took a long time to approve the revision of the system because 2022 was an election year.

Last week, Minister Luís Roberto Barroso, of the STF (Federal Supreme Court), even asked the Chamber for explanations on the Quotas Law, in response to a lawsuit filed by the PV that questioned the fact that they had not yet been reviewed by the Congress.

See the changes in the Quota Law:

• In the admission mechanism, first the marks will be observed by the wide competition and, later, the reservations of vacancies for quotas;
• Assessment every 10 years, with annual monitoring cycles;
• Update of nomenclature and inclusion of Ministries responsible for monitoring the policy;
• Establishment of priority for quota holders in receiving student aid;
• Reduction of the per capita family income to 1 minimum wage in the reservation of vacancies of 50% of the quotas;
• Expansion of affirmative policies for graduate studies;
• Inclusion of quilombolas in the quotas of federal educational institutions;
• Establish that vacancies reserved for unused sub-quotas will be transferred, firstly to other sub-quotas and then to public school students;
• Allow the use of other IBGE surveys, in addition to the Census, to calculate the proportion of quota holders in the federation units.

Source: Deputy Dandara (PT-MG)