Senate approves Quota Law until 2033 – 10/24/2023 – Education

The Senate plenary approved this Tuesday (24) the bill that reformulates the quota system in federal education and extends the policy until 2033. The text goes to the Presidency of the Republic for sanction analysis.

The 2012 Quota Law provided for a review of the system in 2022, a decade after the sanction, but the policy was only approved by the Chamber of Deputies in August of this year.

In addition to the evaluation ten years from now, the text approved this Tuesday establishes the annual monitoring of public policy — which, in the view of the rapporteur, senator Paulo Paim (PT-RS), leaves room for the end of the system before 2033.

“It is not a perpetual measure. It is not a core activity. The quota policy is transitory. I am one of those who dream of one day returning here and being able to say: we no longer need the quota policy”, defended Paim, who was also the law’s rapporteur 2012.

Opposition senators spoke out against the policy. “I ask here: are there poor white people in Minas Gerais? Are there poor white people in Amazonas?” asked senator Flávio Bolsonaro (PL-RJ) when contesting the measure.

The text was approved symbolically, without counting votes. Senators Cleitinho (Republicanos-MG), Eduardo Girão (Novo-CE), Marcos Rogério (PL-RO), Magno Malta (PL-ES) and Rogério Marinho (PL-RN) made a point of recording, however, that they were against the project.

Among the changes approved by Congress is the express inclusion of quilombolas among those benefiting from the reservation of places in federal institutions of higher education and secondary technical education.

Currently, half of the places are reserved for students who attended the public school system throughout high school. Low-income, black, indigenous and people with disabilities students are also covered.

The bill reduced the maximum monthly family income for students who completed all of high school in public schools (and apply for places reserved for low-income people).

Half of the vacancies will be reserved for candidates who can prove a family income of up to one minimum wage (R$1,320) per person. Today, this limit is one and a half minimum wages (R$1,980).

“The project reduces this limit to 1 minimum wage. This ensures more places for poorer people, which is in line with the constitutional objectives of reducing poverty and inequality”, wrote the rapporteur in the opinion.

At another point, the text establishes that candidates will compete for places reserved for quotas only if they do not initially reach the grades for broad competition. The objective, in practice, is to increase the percentage of beneficiaries, making it clear that the minimum number of quota holders cannot be transformed into a ceiling.

In August last year, when the Quota Law completed ten years, a report by the Public Policy Monitoring and Evaluation Council showed a series of evidence that the policy led to greater inclusion in universities, without negative impacts on student performance.

In other words, the arrival of more black and poor young people in public higher education courses — in a proportion closer to society’s picture — did not harm the quality of universities.

The percentage of low-income entrants (with per capita income up to 1.5 minimum wages) in public higher education institutions rose from 50% in 2011 to 70% in 2019, approaching the proportion observed in the population.

For black, brown and indigenous students at federal universities, the share among new entrants went from 42% to 51% (a variation greater than the increase in this population).

Also in federal schools, students in public schools went from 50.4%, among new entrants in 2011, to 64.8% in 2019, according to the report produced by the government.

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SEE WHAT CHANGES ARE IN THE QUOTA LAW:

• In the admission mechanism, grades for broad competition will first be observed and, subsequently, reservations for quota places will be observed;
• Assessment every 10 years, with annual monitoring cycles;
• Update of the nomenclature and inclusion of ministries responsible for monitoring the policy;
• Establishment of priority for quota holders in receiving student aid;
• Reduction of per capita family income to 1 minimum wage in the reservation of 50% of quotas;
• Expansion of affirmative policies for postgraduate studies;
• Inclusion of quilombolas in the quotas of federal educational institutions;
• Establishes that places reserved for unused sub-quotas will be passed on, first to other sub-quotas and then to public school students;
• Allows the use of other IBGE surveys, in addition to the Census, to calculate the proportion of quota holders in the federation units.