The public and the private in the LDB 4.024/1961: historical frameworks for the financing of education

Abstract

The article highlights the Brazilian educational debate in the context of the 1950s, with the intention of establishing milestones for the discussion of the financing of education in the country. It focuses on the debate between the public and private sector in education, during the period of preparation of LDB nº 4.024 / 1961, as well as on the interpretation of the advances of both positions in the text of the law when promulgated. Conducted by an analytical-reconstructive methodology, the study was consolidated based on documentary research, submitted to the thematic analysis procedure. It exposes the arguments used in the pre-LDB debate between privatists and public school advocates; exhibiting and treating also the achievements of both projects, incorporated into the body of law. It concludes that: (a) both the public and private sectors benefited from LDB 4,024 / 1961; (b) concentrating the debate on people rather than on technical and / or intellectual positions, the focus of the central issue: financing education.  Concluye que: a) tanto el público, como el privado se beneficiaron en la LDB 4.024 / 1961, pero b) centrando el debate en personas y no en posicionamientos técnicos y / o intelectuales, se desvió el foco de la cuestión primordial: la responsabilidad sobre el financiamiento de la educación.