Escolas públicas no campo: retrospectiva e perspectivas em um contexto de projetos políticos em disputa

In present article, we present reflections on the process of closing public schools in the countryside in Brazil. Through bibliographical survey, as well as documental research, we carried out a retrospective analysis of the historical moment in which the implementation of policies of mass education directed to people living in rural areas occurs. We have also sought to raise socio-political-economic aspects of the moment in which the process of closing these schools is intensified. The results obtained suggest possible implications of this closure policy, in addition to indicating some of the challenges posed to the public policy of education in the country; for example, the Brazilian federal context and the budget limitations imposed to subnational governments with regard to the funding of school education, particularly in relation to small municipalities and/or municipalities with low tax revenues. This situation quite often occurs because these municipalities present reduced budgets, depending largely on transfers of financial resources from other spheres of the Government, either federal or state, the so-called intergovernmental budgetary transfers; namely, the Municipalities Participation Fund. Such issues demand the resumption of debates about the federative pact, in particular with regard to fiscal federalism, given that the financial capacity of each subnational government is crucial to the implementation of educational policies.