Introduction

The year 2018 constituted itself in a landmark for the actions of the Todos pela Educação (known in Brazil by the acronym TPE), since it was an election year and a time approaching the year 2022, set as the deadline for achieving the purposes of the document "5 goals, 5 flags and 5 attitudes”.

The launch of Todos pela Educação "five goals" in 2007, set up a strategic agenda for reach and impact on educational policies and involved aspects related to education quality, access and permanency, the high school, the literacy and the financing. This set of goals was reinforced by Todos pela Educação in 2010 with the "5 flags", focus on teacher training, external evaluation, management, improving governance and expectation of student learning. Finally, completing this cycle, in 2013 the document “5 attitudes” was launched, which directed a more transparent dialogue with society, based on the perception of families and their relationship with their children and the school (^{TODOS PELA EDUCAÇÃO, 2007}, ²⁰¹⁰, ²⁰¹³).

However, in the year of 2018, the Todos pela Educação, upon the major political and institutional instability on the country since the impeachment of former president Rousseff in 2016, needed to take a step further and equip the next government with an much precise agenda to the concretization of their project, since some of these guidelines didn’t advanced as expected by them.

In that direction, they aimed to organize a diagnostic of Brazilian education parting from Brazilian National Education Plan (known in Brazil by the acronym PNE), detailing a political plan with propositions and budget estimations, summarized in an agenda for the first 100 days of government. Being so, the strategies parting from proposals, such as the National Education System and the federative cooperation; the new Fund for Maintenance and Development of Basic Education and Valorization of Education Professionals (known in Brazil by the acronym Fundeb) and the initiative “Profissão professor”², began to intensify (^{TODOS PELA EDUCAÇÃO, 2018}). Based in that scenario, the “Educação Já!” appeared as the most recent Todos Pela Educação tool to act on the definition and articulation of public policies that are central to the constitution of the Brazil’s National Education System (known in Brazil by the acronym SNE), such as the financing, the federative pact, the collaboration regime, the policies for teacher’s training, the curriculum, the evaluation and the public management.

In this paper we will analyze the “Educação Já!” document that have been subsidizing the initiatives and actions discussed by the Congress, paired with the help of other organizations such as the National Council of Education Secretaries (known in Brazil by the acronym Consed), the National Union of Town Heads in Education (known in Brazil by the acronym Undime) and the Ministry of Education (MEC) for the definition of the Brazil’s National Education System.

For such task, we utilized the concept of Private Apparatus of Hegemony (PAH) (^{GRAMSCI, 2000}). This concept help us to ponder about the institutions of power legitimation, considering how they act to create consensus. The analysis have been complemented by ^{Harvey’s (2005)} reflections about the reconfiguration of global capitalism and the construction of political consents, as a mean to endorse power positions on the dispute and definitions of educational policies.

With those theoretical contributions, we realized a document analysis on the following sources:

The text is split into three parts, with the exception of this introduction. In the first part, we briefly present the movements to the elaboration of the “Educação Já!” document, with the alliances and partnerships for its consolidation. Moving forward, we analyzed the axes and guidelines of the document, with emphasis on the second axis and its guidelines, whose objective is to make feasible the federative organization; the financing policies; the national education system and the policy of large scale evaluation feasible. On the third part, we discussed how the guidelines on the document are assuming form along the National Council of Education Secretaries, the National Union of Town Heads in Education and the Congress. The conclusions point to the fact that the Todos pela Educação stablishes itself as an organic movement with high national and international capillarity and seeks the construction of a political consent to legitimize private positions on the definitions of educational reforms, particularly in the regards of the national education organization upon the federative form in Brazil and upon the institution of the National Education System.

The mobilization to elaborate the “Educação já!”

In Todos pela Educação 2018 report, Priscila Cruz, executive president and co-founder of the movement, gave light to the actions of political mobilization and construction of consents for launching the proposal of the “Educação Já!”:

The first year of an intense journey […]. To put this bold plan up and insert it on the public debate demanded a lot of innovation and articulation. Being our main line of activity in 2018, in parallel with the construction of a technical agenda, we worked at full throttle on the realization of communication actions and mobilization to leverage this agenda, including, for example, an action on the Congress, amplifying our presence on the press, various events and meetings with the most influent opinion leaders of the country amongst different areas and, in an unprecedented fashion, a cycle of individual debates with every major candidate for the presidency, hosted on the TPE head office (^{TODOS PELA EDUCAÇÃO, 2018}, p. 4).

This action had the “[…] support of Todos pela Educação maintaining organizations, 75 specialists and professionals, the partnership and additional merchandising of the following organizations: Lemann Foundation, Natura Institute, Unibanco Institute, Itaú BBA, Itaú Social and Falconi Education” (^{TODOS PELA EDUCAÇÃO, 2018}, p. 7).

The “Educação Já!” technical and political platform has been published in December 2018, and defined itself as:

A supraparty initiative led by TPE, paired with other organizations and sector specialists, aims to contribute to the structuration of this strategy by future governors and implement the measures needed to start a jump forward in quality so urgent in basic Brazilian education. (^{TODOS PELA EDUCAÇÃO, 2018}, p. 11).

From an apparent social engagement, the Todos pela Educação created a chain of alliances, reinforcing an idea of “responsible solidarity” from the entrepreneurs with the cause of an education exempt of political biases, turning their action imperative to the State structure and the changes of the educational policies (^{GENTILI, 1998}, p. 82).

“Educação já!”, federative governance and the Brazil’s National Education System

The structure presented on the document highlights three axes: a) external factors; b) system-level enables; c) extra school factors. The axes are subdivided into guidelines, among those, on axis the 2, the guideline 7 speaks about the federative governance and addresses the proposal of systematization for the Brazil’s National Education System.

On the proposal as whole, there is a plethora of actions with 12 guidelines, being important to stand out that the idea of federative governance alters not only Brazil’s National Education System outline, but the very State foundation as well, insofar as it is configured as a proposal of governance in networks that reshape the society, reforming the State through actions realized by “[…] hybrid instances that line off new types of relations between state-organizations and non-state-organizations” (^{SHIROMA; EVANGELISTA, 2014}, p31).

The Scheme 1 reveals that Todos pela Educação proposal creates a broad range of actions that seek affect directly the public policies and the public management. The main argument of the document “Educação Já!” is the development of “[…] a national educational strategy […]” to “[…] scale-up the promotion of education quality” (^{TODOS PELA EDUCAÇÃO, 2018}, p. 19). The axes presented on the proposal are subdivided in 12 guidelines, according to Table 1:

The Axis 1 refers to questions related to the learning field, the curriculum, the management and the teacher practice, articulated to the teaching stages and modalities. That is, the formulation of those policies can define the base to organize the Brazil’s National Education System to fit Todos pela Educação mold.

We also point out to the fact that the emphasis given to those policies is due to a very peculiar context of corporative reform. According to ^{Freitas (2018, p. 81)}, “[…] those actions, apparently unrelated, articulate in an engineering of ‘alignment’ (basis/teaching/evaluation/accountability)”.

This happens because the more restricted and standardized base policies are, the bigger the possibilities for the private sector to act in a production scale are, with the expansion and creation of new educational market niches inside the public sphere.

This way, they enhance their performance with a multitude of services, from the offer of new teaching technologies, digital platforms, implementation of management educational systems, dissemination and production of teaching material, programs of continuous training, evaluation and standardized tests, among innumerous other possibilities on this field.

The Axis 2 can be defined as the proposal’s central element. It includes aspects that can define the organization of the national education. The five related guidelines involve the federative pact for the settlement of the Brazil’s National Education System.

The federative cooperation gains relevance on this discussion. For Todos pela Educação, it is necessary to:

Create mechanisms of stimulus to the implementation of collaborative practices between peers, including: the collaboration regime between states and cities, the intercity consortia and the biggest institutionality for Education Development Arrangements (acronym ADE in portuguese) between cities (^{TODOS PELA EDUCAÇÃO, 2018}, p. 59).

The flexibilization of collaboration instruments has a close relation to the model of public management between the networks. Todos pela Educação wants a structural change to make possible for a better efficiency, and highlights, as important, the creation of “[…] mechanisms of stimulus to the adoption of the collaboration regime between teaching systems to enlarge the sharing of good practices” (^{TODOS PELA EDUCAÇÃO, 2018}, p. 62).

It is worth noting that the debate about the federative cooperation defined by Todos Pela Educação doesn’t imply agreement, neither determines a collaboration by federal equity, but reinforces the institutionalization of agreements, pacts and arrangements that can enlarge the performance spaces of private interest agents. An example of that is the creation, in 2016, of a movement that reunites institutions to promote and strengthen cooperative actions between the federate peers, on the educational public policies field, as necessary conditions for the improvement of everyone’s learning outcome, the Movimento Colabora Educação (known in Brazil by the acronym MCE) social movement that has been launched “[…] as a thematic table on the advisory scope of civil society of the Inter-American Development Bank” (MOVIMENTO COLABORA EDUCAÇÃO, 2018).

Todos pela Educação current strategy director and co-founder of Colabora Educação Social, João Marcelo Borges said:

The IDB had the desire to settle a new form of relation with the multiple civil society organizations that work on the educational area here on the country, that would be less punctual and pulverized, and had more concrete products and objectives. On the other hand, there was an interest from the very own OSCs to articulate themselves better around some high-priority agendas on the educational field (^{BORGES, 2019}, p. 33).

About Brazil’s National Education System definition, he does not hide the ambition to take the center stage, regarding not only the creation and structuration of the System, but also the effective participation on any inter-federative conventions of agreement that may occur on the scope of federal and state governments³:

The MCE will have an essential role, one that is not played by any civil society organization on current days, not only on the decisions of creating the SNE, but, after approval, on its structuration — either as part of an eventual tripartite commission, or in support of several bipartite commissions that can be established (^{BORGES, 2019}, p. 33, translation free).

The initiatives around the means of collaboration are not recent. The Todos pela Educação has been a strategic articulator on the defense for the ADE. Likewise, the Natura Institute favored the diffusion of a collaboration concept, in a document titled “The collaboration regime that we believe”. The document starts from a managerialist perspective of control and competitiveness, and aims, inspired on “successful cases”, to propagate the idea of efficiency and good results on top of a model of structured governance.

The movement articulated between the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Todos pela Educação and the Colabora Educação Social produced a narrative based on the public management inefficiency and the lack of rules regarding the responsibilities of federative peers, which serves to warrant the construction of more institutionalized cooperation models.

In this way, to reinforce and amplify the engagement to this model, we have, as an example, the creation, in 2017, of the “Intercity Network to Collaboration in Education”, that defines itself as:

A non-profit supraparty initiative, that represents the conglomerate of institutional forces, both public and private, that act on collaboration regimes, as instrument of public management to the enhancement of Brazilian education quality, as Intercity Consortia, as ADEs, as Town Associations, and others. Foundations, Institutes and Private Associations, other organizations without municipal public power representativeness can join the network as partners or supporters (^{REDE DE COLABORAÇÃO INTERMUNICIPAL EM EDUCAÇÃO, 2019}).

The Network reached, in 2019, the following setting, according to Table 2:

This articulation in networks, to spread those concepts and experiences, is strategic to reach the fortification of the proposals and assert the interests of the “reformer entrepreneurs” class. In this way, the Todos Pela Educação sets up, in practice, a network of the capital, in which the action of each subject represents a distinct collection of corporations with expressive participation on the financial market. In that perspective:

The entrepreneurs, if not every at least an elite of them, holds the capacity of molding the society, in its entire complex organism of services, included on the State organism, owing to the necessity for creating conditions most favorable to the expansion of their own class; or, at least, they may possess the capacity to choose the “representatives” (specialized workers) in whom they can trust to give this organizational activity of general relations external to the corporation. It is possible to notice that the “organic” intellectuals, which every new class creates with itself and elaborates in its progressive development, are, in most of cases, “specializations” of partial aspects of primitive activity of a new social type that the new class conceived (^{GRAMSCI, 2001}, v.2, §1, p. 15).

The sketch of the “Educação Já!” project already represents the way in which entrepreneurs have been trying to assert a model of society through a neoliberal bias, what highlights a process of privatization latu sensu, on the words of Lima (2018), meaning that “[…] the introduction of theories and private management modes inside public organizations, the privatization in a broad sense transcends the most common processes and instruments of strictu sensu privatization, not being, however, simple confront options, neither incompatible with each other”. With that, it is intended to reform the public education, labeled as “inefficient”, with the logic and modus operandi of private corporations.

Among the remaining guidelines presented on Axis 2, the financial mechanisms have been related, as these elements are vital on the settlement of the Brazil’s National Education System. The document says to:

Upgrade these mechanisms, making them more and more redistributives […], it is in that discussion that the debate about the “Initial Quality Student Cost (acronym CAQi in portuguese) is inserted, device foreseen on the PNE to reference the cost of a minimum standard in teaching quality in Brazil, but still does not have a calculation regulation previewed, neither a debate mature enough on the Country (^{TODOS PELA EDUCAÇÃO, 2018}, p. 68).

Although the text consider the necessity to enhance the financial mechanisms, points out “[…] there is relevant space to the introduction of inducting mechanisms for student’s learning results. For that, the rules for resource distribution can serve as very important tools” (^{TODOS PELA EDUCAÇÃO, 2018}, p. 70). This vision creates another perception to the financial policies, which diverge from CAQi and CAQ implementations, when assuming neo-corporative outlines of competition between the federative peers.

Thus, the tax distribution would not have by principle the federative equality when offering educational services and granting the right to education. The tributary reform would be another instrument to monitor and evaluate the teaching networks and systems, with the upgrade and expansion of large-scale evaluation systems.

On the financing dimension, upon the non-recognition of both the CAQi and the CAQ, and under the justification of an insufficiency on the debate, in April 2019 the CNE/CEB’s Pronouncement nº 08/2010, that dealt with education minimum quality standards for the public Basic Education, was revoked with the vote of the at time rapporteur Maria Helena Guimarães de Castro (who already held the position of MEC’s executive-secretary) with an contrary opinion “[…] the CNE’s Basic Education Cabinet competence to define the financial value and the pricing of the CAQi ” (CNE, 2019, p. 25).

The decision created a blank on the PNS, specifically on the Goal 20, revoking the possibility to settle a State policy to the funding of public education with the definition of quality parameters and mechanisms of better equality on the Federation. In this way, the disengagement on the definition of both CAQi and CAQ has an impact on the dimension of the “[…] school quality, so it is a commodity that is available on multiple levels and can be ‘bought’ by parents. It is the State obligation to grant the basic to its citizens, expressed on the value of a ‘voucher’ ” (^{FREITAS, 2018}, p. 32).

It is important to consider that, in this period, the Todos pela Educação had as proposal the “Fundeb Equality” and its absolute support to the Constitution Amendment nº 15/2015, made by congressperson Raquel Muniz (PSC/MG) and archived in January 31, 2019, alongside with the exiting of the rapporteur: congressperson Professora Dorinha Seabra Rezende (DEM-TO) from Fundeb’s special committee. However, In February 21, 2019, two months before revoking the Resolution nº 08/2010, Dorinha, through the Requirement nº 76/2019, requested to unarchive the Constitution Amendment Project nº 15/2015, o got it accepted to the continuing of its processing⁷.

Todos pela Educação was also present in meetings about this subject at the National Fund for Education Development (acronym FNDE in portuguese) and at the MEC, presenting proposals for a new fund in the 2^nd reunion of evaluation and restructuration of the Fundeb. Present at the day were “[…] Unesco Representatives, WBG, Institute of Applied Economic Research (acronym Ipea in portuguese), Institute of Teaching and Research (acronym InsPer in portguese), the Todos pela Educação and the congresspersons Professora Dorinha and Gastão Vieira” (^{MEC, 2019}). On the occasion, technical cooperation agreements were formalized with the National Confederation of Cities, which demonstrates its intention to combine interests and compose a proposal for the fund.

The Axis 3 presents the extra-school factors, inducing the necessity to implement intersectoral policies aimed to the articulation of actions that can encompass children and teenagers. It is worth noting that the majority of proposals on the government sphere had the support of the Mario Cecilia Souto Vidigal Foundation, partner on Todos Pela Educação actions and represented by Finasa’s Bank group, which has approval in the financial market and performance on the children field.

In summary, the architecture planned by the “Educação Já!” already elaborated seven priorities to the government management between 2019 and 2022 hinting a broad portfolio of strategies, with highlights to: a) restructuration of governance rules and enhancement of network management; b) more redistributive funding and quality inductor; c) effectuation of the National Basis of Common Curriculum in every teaching network; d) career professionalization and teacher training; e) children teaching as a intersectoral agenda; f) lecturing in collaboration regimes; g) new proposal of high school; (^{TODOS PELA EDUCAÇÃO, 2019}).

To legitimize its proposal, Todos pela Educação seeks to assert supposed consensuses, polishing its strategies on the discursive production to be valuated and reaches the population through the means of communication and in different formats. The publications also contribute to reinforce and legitimize those discursive productions, and, in this sense, to evaluate the axes and strategies of the “Educação Já!” document, Todos pela Educação published in 2018 the book: “Educação em debate: um panorama abrangente e plural sobre os desafios da área para 2019-2022 em 46 artigos”. ^{Priscila Cruz (2018, p. 14)} consolidate in the introduction that:

The invite to these brilliant authors, used to think about our Education, demanded that they had a priority to the area in the period 2019-2022, developing it on the form of a paper. Our intent was to build the texts on a purposeful argumentation, regardless of political-ideological biases. In this way […], we believe that this book strengthens the multicity of ideas.

In this way, the usage of PAHs, on the different medias and means of communication, reveals the dispute for the “public opinion” defined by ^{Gramsci (2007, C.3, § 83, p. 265)} as “[…] political content of public want”. Represents a fundamental element to the power structure in a class project.

We can attest that the Todos pela Educação has been strengthening its strategies, redefining its articulation according to its own goals, creating increasingly more specific and organic means to feed its interests, which is possible to point out on the content spread and the actions of the “Educação Já!” program.

Todos pela Educação new incidence strategies on the definition of the Brazil’s National Education System at the National Council of Education Secretaries, the National Union of Town Heads in Education and the congress

Todos pela Educação has also been asserting its insertion on educational policies, showing the necessity to secure modifications on legal and institutional rules on the Congress, including creating a headquarters in Brasília, named “Education House”, with the intent to promote regular meetings under the coordination of the Mixed Parliamentary Front for the Education (^{TODOS PELA EDUCAÇÃO, 2019}).

Between 2018 and 2019, Todos pela Educação website started to intensify the outlet of articles specific about the Brazil’s National Education System, on a series of special content, according to Table 3.

Furthermore, Todos pela Educação has presented its insertion in a more explicit way at the Congress, either through legal proposals on spaces of political deliberation, or through the mobilization and presence on congressperson associations, according to the incidence indicated on the Table 4.

In this context and with the task of fulfilling the strategic agenda (2019-2022), the Complementary Law Project nº 25/2019, authored by congressperson Dorinha Seabra Rezende, has been presented in February 13, 2019. Three days after the proposal announcement, Todos pela Educação carried out the International Seminary “Educação Já: as 7 prioridades que podem mudar o rumo da educação e do país” at Febrary 17 to 18.

The Getúlio Vargas Foundation and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology organized the seminary. The Futura Channel (^{CANAL FUTURA, 2019}) broadcasted the event transmission. Panels discussing the thematic of the Todos pela Educação seven priorities were made.

Into the event priorities, the federative governance and the Brazil’s National Education System organization as a Todos pela Educação goal to 2020 was present. It is important to point out that the seminary identifies a strategic moment, upon the beginning of a new government and the necessity of constructing a new agenda that can cover states and cities. The opening table set the event mood when presented: a) Alessio Costa Lima, National Union of Town Heads in Education president; b) Fernando Abrucio, teacher on the Getúlio Vargas Foundation; c) Frederico Amancio, National Council of Education Secretaries vice president; d) Luiz Antônio Tozi, MEC executive secretary; e) Luiz Roberto Lira Curi, CNE president; and f) Priscila Cruz, Todos pela Educação executive-president (^{CANAL FUTURA, Seminário Internacional Educação Já, 2019}).

Regarding federalism and the Brazil’s National Education System, the Panel 2 had as its theme: “Governança na educação: como regulamentar a cooperação entre União, Estados e Munícipios?” This table’s composition is emblematic: a) Alessio Costa Lima, National Union of Town Heads in Education president; b) Idilvan Alencar, congressperson; c) José Henrique Paim, ex-education Minister and teacher on the Getúlio Vargas Foundation; d) Mozart Nevez Ramos, CNE member and director of articulation and innovation at the Ayrton Senna Institute; and d) Ricardo Martins, Congress’ law consultant. Guilherme Lacerda, executive secretary of Colabora Educação Social, mediated this table.

The central discussion at this panel was the debate on the Brazil’s National Education System regulation through the federative cooperation. It rebuilds aspects of responsibilities between confederate peers, their specific assignments and which rules would make the pact effective.

Although the debaters reinforce the necessity of the law, even endorsing the Complementary Law Project nº 25/2019, authored by congressperson Dorinha Seabra Rezende (DEM/TO), we can notice at the ex-Minister speech the interest on a regulation of the Brazil’s National Education System that don’t obstruct the pacts between states and cities or between cities and the “entrepreneur reformers”, such as in the ADE, for example:

The law cannot get to a level of detail that make it impossible to these pacts between states and cities. It cannot get in the way of an already existing process; it rather should help these pacts to happen […]

And about the ADEs: I think that it is a wonderful solution, if we can get it to the Law, a guideline in that direction that could induce this organization, regardless of it being an arrangement or a consortia (^{CANAL FUTURA, Seminário Internacional Educação Já, 2019}).

In the same way, at the proposal elaborated by Todos pela Educação about the federative collaboration the ADEs get relevance, on the perspective of granting a bigger institutionality with its inscription in the law:

For the success of these strategies, the national education system complementary law would take place to, in an ordinary law, better adequate the organization between public peers at its formation as ADEs, much similar to what is already asserted on the Resolution CEB/CBE nº1, from 2012, as public management tools to enhance our Education quality (^{TODOS PELA EDUCAÇÃO, 2019}, p. 59, emphasis added by the authors).

That would mean creating a model of the federative pact that, instead of making deals, could reveal, as ^{Abicalil points out (2013, p. 821)}:

A greediness on the public funds […], to control the administration, the educational goals and the quality content according to the purposes of who movement, advise, plan, evaluate, form, subsidize, hold the means of production and instrumentalizes the public education to achieve economic efficiency.

The set of these actions reinforce the strengthening of the entrepreneurship, influencing the Educational Systems with the constructions of consensual agendas. This process weakened the role of the State on the implementation of policies, which start to be regulated by the redefinitions of the capital on a global scale, in its power logic (^{HARVEY, 2005}), embodying more and more the necessity to align corporative principles to outline the directions of national education.

Todos pela Educação have been amplifying its strategies, reaching different instances in and out the government. Its actions demonstrate a broad institutional capacity, with intents to take the role of education specialists, debating about multiple subjects and field themes and validating its interests of guiding the Educational System policies, under the excuse of co-responsibility (^{MARTINS, 2016}).

The settlement of this Project presents itself through different communication strategies, as a mean to transmit the actions. ^{Gramsci (1999)} says that, when socializing info, one can create a culture, mechanisms of intellectual and moral order. This perception can be highlighted through the slogans, marketing campaigns and events that aim to attend a “[…] certain market that correspond to the social forces relations in a stated structure of the production apparel” (^{GRAMSCI, 1999}, C11 § 51, p.194).

Final conclusions

E, finalmente, para florão e remate de tanto privatizar, privatizem-se os Estados, entregue-se por uma vez a exploração deles a empresas privadas, mediante concurso internacional. Aí se encontra a salvação do mundo (^{SARAMAGO, 1996}).

We note that there is a movement around Brazil’s National Education System’s implementation, intensified with the presence of an agenda settled by the Todos pela Educação in its “Educação Já!” program. The drawing of this proposal represents the way in how entrepreneurs seek to aster a society model in a neoliberal bias, which highlights the education privatization project through the articulation between base, teaching, evaluation and corporate world.

The focus given to the federative governance on the “Educação Já!” document derives from the premise that institutes, foundations and multiple corporate interest organizations could be more capable of “managing” the national education systems and networks, that is, through a general administrative theory that could be accepted universally, such as the uncritical transition from local productive arrangements to the ADEs.

In this way, Todos pela Educação actions set an organic privatization movement on the educational public policies field, and enabled changes in structural aspects of the education, regarding the social planning, the notions of education quality, the intergovernmental relations between federative peers, the diffusion of federative cooperation models, the evaluation and the public management.