Secondary Education reform in the Temer administration: corrosion of the right to education in the context of a financial crisis in Brazil

Abstract

This paper analyzes the secondary education reform initiated with the provisional measure n. 746/2016 and its relation with the financial crisis. Other than pointing out contradictions between law n. 13.415/2017 and other education laws, a counterpoint was made between the first reactions of the progressive field of education and the arguments representing neoconservative and neoliberal elites that took the power through the political-media-aided-juridical coup in August 2016. The flexibility and the hollowing out of the secondary school curriculum can result in the corrosion of the right to education. Restrictive measures of primary expenses by the State (DRU, PEC 241/55 and both welfare and labor reforms) aim to stifle the state’s “expenditures” on welfare in order to deepen fiscal adjustment and guarantee better accumulation conditions by rentier sectors of the capital.