Educação em tempos de contrarreforma: o ajuste fiscal e suas implicações ao ensino superior público brasileiro (2015-2022)

Abstract

This thesis analyzes the repercussions of the Fiscal Adjustment policy on Brazilian Federal Higher Education Institutions (2015-2022) within the context of dependent and financialized capitalism. It is a study guided by the critical-dialectical method, which relied on bibliographic and documentary research, as well as the budget analysis available on the SIGABRASIL platform. Departing from the historical development of monopolistic capitalism and Brazil’s particular dependent capitalism formation, it sought to understand the unfolding counter-reform in the Brazilian state since the 1990s until the present day, as well as the Fiscal Adjustment policy, the main mechanism for appropriating public resources. In this scenario, marked by "reforms" and the dispute over the Public Fund, social expenditures are the first affected by such restrictions, which directly impacts social policies, dismantling previously acquired rights, discontinuing a great deal of different programs and projects, precariousness of labor relations, and creating an even more complex Social Question. This research sought to identify how this movement impacted Higher Education, considering the historical particularities of research subject and a temporal framework – which was mainly marked by the deepening of fiscal austerity policy through Constitutional Amendment No. 95 of 2016, as well as the expansion of conservative and privatista projects in Education. The study pointed out that during the Temer and Bolsonaro administrations, there was an intensification of the Public Education dismantling process, whereupon the implications of this movement were not limited to the financial scope. It was observed that, during the analyzed period, public education suffered ideological attacks along the budgetary restrictions, strongly aligned with the autocratic project of the bourgeoisie. In Higher Education, beyond privatization intensification, interventions, and resource atrophy, it is also evident the use of budgetary restrictions and limitations as a coercive and punitive measure for Federal Higher Education Institutions, aiming, among other things, to garner support for the ongoing counter-reforms. Therefore, it is concluded that interventions carried out by the Temer and Bolsonaro governments match the market-oriented scope typical of a subservient-mercantile conception, which not only subjects public Education to a marketoriented policy but also imposes neoliberal logic on all instances of life.