Introduction

The current capitalist crisis that has global effects endangers the functioning and hegemony (political, economic, and ideological) of this mode of production. As a consequence, the ruling classes reorganize their strategies to favor the hegemonic policital action, promoting social reforms to guarantee the power of capital and to broaden the possibilities of extraction of surplus value.

Adjustments, measures, and policies adopted during crisis form a set of palliative actions, whose objective is to circumvent capitalism flaws and contribute to this mode of production. This aims to secure that it can continue to produce wealth and inequalities in equivalent proportions, since the private capital accumulation by a single class results from the extraction of surplus value in the work field.

^{Gramsci’s conception of State (2016}) describes an organic and dialectic relation between forces and consensus, dictatorship and hegemony, economy and politics, direction and domination. Therefore, the State is understood in a broaden dimension that involves the function usually ascribed to it as political society, and also as civil society, promoting an articulation around the same interests. (^{GRAMSCI, 2016})

Taking this understanding as reference, ^{Gramsci (2014}) emphasizes the bond created between the State and the hegemony private agentes, that is, civil society institutions that are represented in political, economic, cultural, religious and other segments. That author points out that in moments of economic crises, the State adopts actions or initiatives that contribute to the preservation of the production apparatus. (^{GRAMSCI, 2014})

According to ^{Sanfelice (2016}), in times of crisis, social rights are violated and the capital is strengthened. In such moments, the population’s understanding and sacrifice are required and, from this argument, the State puts into practice “the most barbarian policies against social rights, and mainly, against the working class, which has to bear the costs” (^{SANFELICE, 2016}, p. 98) of these crises.

In the Brazilian scenario, a context os crises has been observed that has affected political, economic and social aspects. In an attempt to overcome such crises, the federal government enforce fiscal adjustment actions such as wage freeze, education reforms, mass outsourcing, reduction of vacancies in public universities, and decrease in social programs, among others. (^{ORSO, 2017})

After the 2016 coup, these political/economic measures provoked an avalanche of destruction of rights and the small achievements of the working class in the last few years. Authors such as ^{Saviani (2017}); ^{Lombardi (2017}); ^{Caetano and Comerlatto (2018}) point out that the education area is strategic for the development of reform actions in times of economic recession. For them, the “capitalist class education proposal promotes the discourse of efficiency and efficacy through the dismantling of what had been produced by the school previously”. (^{CAETANO; COMERLATTO, 2018}, p. 21)

The PEC nº 241, amended as PEC nº 55, also known as “end of world PEC”, deconstructs the arguments used by the federal government propaganda, that the high school reform represents improvement, expansion and modernization of this schooling phase. In fact, such governmental proposals cannot be made concrete without structural investment in the Brazilian education system, and in the education professionals’ working conditions.

The high school reform was launched as a Provisional Measure on 22^nd September 2016, as an urgent measure, without any dialogue or deep discussion involving the civil society, students’ organizations, students as individuals, teachers, or institutions linked to the education. ^{Motta and Frigotto (2017}) consider that this urgency has an essentially interested character, in which the youth education is linked to economism, whose objective is to develop the workforce to meet market requirements. Those authors interpret this situation as an “organic relation” established “between education, economic growth, and social development”. (^{MOTTA; FRIGOTTO, 2017}, p. 364)

The production of technical and qualified workforce for the job market, and the restriction of the possibility of a general and critical education based on scientific knowledge that allows elaborated thought and that provides the youth with opportunities of access to higher education, are guiding aspects of the high school reform.

From the Historical Dialectical Materialism theoretical-methodological background, this paper aims to propose elements for the debate of the influence of hegemony private agents in the materialization of Law 13.415/2017.

Our reflections were systematized in order to supply elements through which to achieve the objective proposed. Therefore, we discuss the elements that support the high school reform, namely, law nº 13.415/2017 and the limits that prevent the high school students from having an effectively public and quality education. Next, we seek to unveil the interests represented in the high school reform and the influence of private segments in the approval of Law n° 13.415/2017.

Our final considerations indicate that the hegemony of private segments prevailed in the high school reform, mainly from corporations and non-governmental organizations. Not only did these agentes receive financial benefits, but they could also interfere in the public education with ideas and ways of thinking, aiming to educate in the medium and long term a youth population adapted and conformed with their class situation.

Guiding elements in the high school reform - Law nº 13.415/2017

The Brazilian high school reform, enforced as a provisional measure on 22^nd September 2016, occurred in a context of hegemony crisis that was made concrete in a coup that was developed in the gaps of the burgeois democracy.

Such crisis, which peaked in the impeachment of the president Dilma Rousseff, had repercusions in all social sectors and was the justification for the sucessor of the deposed president, Michel Temer, whose political party was the Movimento Democrático Brasileiro - MDB (Brazilian Democratic Movement), to enforce a set of reforms whose objectives were to limit the access of the working class population to basic social rights such as education and health.

Within the reforms implemented, two proposals were seen to be central: Proposal for Constitutional Amendment - PEC nº 241, which was processed in the Federal Senate as PEC nº 55 and that after approved froze the government expenditure in social areas, and the MP nº 746/2016, amended by the Law nº 13.415/2017, which provided for the reorganization of high school in the country.

The high school reform proposal was received with criticism and obtained low level of acceptance among students, education professionals, and researchers in the education area, among others. In addition to the movement of occupation of 1,197 public education institutions in opposition to the reform, ^{Caetano and Comerlatto (2018}) refer to the public consultation, carried out by the Federal Senate with the participation of 78,115 people, in which 73, 564 voted against the reform.

Most of the criticism to the high school reform focuses on the curriculum flexibilization, which proposes the fragmentation of the high school curriculum into two parts. One of them was destined to a common curriculum, defined by the Base Nacional Comum Curricular - BNCC (National Common Curricular Base), which sets forth that only Portuguese and mathematics shall be mandatory subjects in the three initial years of high school. The other part included five formative itineraries: I - language and its technologies; II - mathematics and its technologies; III - natural sciences and their technologies; IV - applied human an social sciences; and V - technical and professional education” (BRASIL, 2017).

According to ^{Silva (2018}, p. 43), the curriculum flexibilization represents “denying the right to a complete basic education common to all”, it intensifies social inequalities, since its main objective is not the type of education that prioritizes universal access to the set of knowledge and wisdom historically produced by the humankind, or the expansion and development of free and critical thinking, or even the promotion of the development of human potentials, which are favored through the contact with a diversity of knowledge, content and experiences. Conversely, the curriculum flexibilization results in a kind of superficial, shattered education that leads high school students to adjust to the productive organization of society ruled by capital.

It seems relevant to hightlight that even before the high school reform proposal was put forward, this phase in basic education had been suffering with the issues that affect Brazilian education as a whole. The United Nations Children’s Fund - UNICEF approahces the challenges for the high school quality, emphasizing that the youth access to and permanence in high school in Brazil is linked to issues related to the “socio-economic context such as early entrance in the job market, pregnancy and family violence” (UNICEF, 2014, p. 06).

In addition, the UNICEF (2014) points out the existence of problems related to the school routine such as distancing from the students’ reality, inexistence of a dialogue between the members of the school community (students, teachers, and managers), aspects related to demotivation and work conditions, and the precarious infrastructure of the schools. Such issues evidence the historial problems faced in this phase of basic education, which are not only related to the curriculum organization, but also to the professionals’ and students’ work and life conditions, and which are marked by the lack of democratic experiences and material shortage.

^{Nosella (2016}, p. 19) questions the current configuration of high school and discusses the “lack of definition of its pedagogical statute”, emphasizing “lack of clarification” of its “specific educational functions”. According to that author, high school, “is sometimes squeezed between elementary school⁴ and higher education, other times it appears as a marginalized education period, which can be dismissed or substituted with courses that prepare these students for the university entrance exam” (^{NOSELLA, 2016}, p. 19) or professional courses “with direct production practice”. (NOSELLA, 2016, p. 19)

In fact, the Brazilian high school is far from meeting the interests and needs of the working class youth. However, “the Law tends to insist in the perspective that the set of existing problems in public high school can be solved by altering the curriculum” (FERRETI, 2018, p. 27) focusing on a common core and specific formative itineraries.

One of the arguments put forward by the federal government is that the specific formative itineraries would provide Brazilian students with the possibility of choosing the one that would be the most suitable to their objctives and future projects. This is a weak argument, since art. 4^th of the Law nº 13. 415/2017 amends article 36 of the Law nº 9394/96, setting forth that the organization of knowledge areas “shall be carried out according to the criteria set for each education system”. (BRASIL, 2017)

The intention of organizing the curricula based on formative itineraries, following the flexibilization argument, focuses on technicism and has tight bonds with the productive world. ^{Araújo (2019}) comments that the technical and professional education route or “the poor route” (p. 61) would demand a lot of investment in public schools, while the law provides for the recognition of knowledge, experience and competences acquired in other spaces. According to that author, this element configures “doing what it takes in the high school technical professional education, which mainly targets the working class youth”. (^{ARAÚJO, 2019}, p. 61)

The workload issue was another highly criticized element in the high school reform proposal. The Provisional Measure nº 746/2016 suggested a maximum of 1200 hours as the total workload of the common curriculum and the provisions of the Law nº 13.415/2017 set forth a maximum of 1800 hours, which sould occur according to the criteria set by the education systems. ^{Sandri (2017}, p. 1347) emphasizes that the common curriculum maximum limit “might not be enough to include subjects such as geography, history, biology, chemistry, and physics, among others” and that the reform does not provide for a minimum workload “for the general knowledge base, which leads to the conclusion that some education systems might offer a curriculum whose workload is below 1800 hours”.

Another polemic issue in the high school reform was the indication of the possibility of employing professionals with “notorious knowledge” not specifying what this really means. This sets a precedent in the area so that “supposed specialists, who are not qualified teachers” (^{MOTTA; FRIGOTTO, 2017}, p. 369) can work in public education. In this sense, ^{Motta and Frigotto (2017}, p. 369) draw attention to the fact that this aspect in particular might reduce the possibility of taking public tests or even “exempt governments from the obligation” of hiring new teachers, which in our perception, might increase outsourcing to supply the demand for these professionals.

From the considerations above, we could infer that the high school reform major commitment is to meet private interests, those defended by the economic and political hegemony of the country. Therefore, the new high school goes against the needs of the youth population of the working class, since it conditions, shapes and disciplines their minds, limiting the possibilities of reaching their own hegemony. This logic contributes to increase the structural duality of a society that is already divided, fragmente, and unequal.

The proposal of “students’ holistic education, by adopting working procedures towards the construction of their life projects and their education including physical, cognitive and socioemotional aspects” (BRASIL, 2017) is deceiving. If such principles were taken into consideration, the high school reform would promote structural improvement in schools and a broad and solid project for the teachers’ work (salary) appraisal, with increased number of vacancies, construction of schools equipped with sports facilities, laboratories, teaching material, and scholarship for working students, among other initiatives.

It is not possible to think about an effectively holistic education without providing students with possibilities of developing their potential, or in precarious spaces that lack materials and professionals, and, mainly by imposing a reform that was not even debated with civil society.

A holistic education, as presented in that law, leads to the understanding that it covers different aspects of the individual’s education to enable the development of human potentialities and broaden the opportunities of contact with the knowledge accumulated by the humankind. These assumptions are contradictory, since a really holistic education becomes utopical when inserted in an education proposal based on curriculum fragmentation.

A holistic education requires catering for intellectual, social, physical, emotional, and cultural development, that is, it must be organized within a proposal of education whose objective is the learners’ full development. To achieve this aim, education policies must guarantee the quality of the public education offered, which demands investments in the structure of schools, and teachers’ development and valorization. Another key aspect, is to promote initiatives that allow the youth to attend school without having to opt between studying or workind, listen to students, seek to include them effectively in school decisions and procedures, understanding their needs and interests and, thus enabling them to overcome the inequalities they experience in everyday life.

It seems relevant to clarify that a holistic education is different from a full time education, since while the former provides the learners with theoretical, practical and cultural background so that they can fully develop their potentialities, the latter only increases the time the student stays in school. Regarding holistic education in the new high school, the Law N° 13.415/2017 reads:

Art. 13. The Education Ministry set forth the Policy of Promotion of the Implementation of full time high schools.

Sole Paragraph. The promotion policy cited above provides for the transfer of resources by the Education Ministry to the States and to the Federal District for ten years per school, as of the date of implementation of the full time high school in the respective school, pursuant to the Agreement to be executed between the parties, which shall contain, at least: I - identification and delimitation of the actions to be financed; II - quantitative targets; III - physical-financial execution schedule; IV - plan for the start and end of the execution of actions and conclusion of steps or phases planned. (BRASIL, 2017)

We understand the importance of questioning what this proposal means, since besides the fact that the schools do not have structural and financial conditions to offer full time high school, the Constitutional Amendment - EC 95/2016 limited transfer of resources to social areas, including the education area. It is also necessary to point out that the full time education proposal neglects the fact that part of the young individuals who attend high school also work and, therefore, if the school close to their homes or workplace can only offer full time high school, this group will have difficulties to move to another region of the city to conclude their studies, which would certainly contribute to high indices of school evasion and dropout.

The high school reform does not consider the possibility of a young individual changing their mind in relation to the itinerary of their studies. In such case, students would be forced to start a new itinerary from the beginning, and would not be able to transfer the results of the previous itinerary to the current one. Amidst these contradictions, the most problematic point of the reform is the curriculum fragmentation, since it hampers the possibility of developing critical thought.

Although the formation of free and critical thought has been weakened by the presence of the dominant ideology in the curricula, pedagogical practices, education policies, or in the world conceptions that guide the lifestyle of a significant part of society, it is possible to indicate possibilities. Free and critical thought can be developed in contact with contents and knowledge from different areas, mainly those related to philosophy, arts, sociology, and history, among others.

Marx’s theory indicates that the social emancipation of explored classes “migh occur in a process of self-awareness by the proletary class (in the realm of production social relations, by absorbing philosophy as an instrument of revolutionary knowledge)” (^{LUIZ, 2011}, p. 47), which requires broad access to systematized knowledge. The project of constructing a new society demands awareness of the burgeois hegemony domination mechanisms, that is, it imposes the unveiling of society contradictions and the correlation of forces that permeate it.

Education can supply theoretical and practical foundation for that. In this process, it is important to know political, cultural, economic and ideologic aspects that move the class society, and also the everyday life of the young individuals that attend high school. Who are these individuals? What are their desires and expectations? How do they see the school and society? What is their routine like inside and outside of the school? What are their demands for the school and society?

This implies to build up a social and cultural profile of the youth that attend high school, seeking to understand who they are, and also what their expectancies towards school and society are. Regarding the young individuals’ perception in relation to the school, ^{Dayrell and Carrano (2014}, p. 102) pointed out that for great part of these individuals “the institution seems to be distant from their interests and needs”, the “school routine is reported as boring” and the “school is seen as a necessary ‘obligation’ to obtain certificates”.

The high school reform did not take into consideration the youth’s reality analysis, since if such analysis had been carried out, the government would implement employment policies and job market insertion, so that those individuals could provide for themselves and their families. However, conversely, the government seems to believe that young individuals are not in school due to its unattractive curriculum, that is, the government minimized the problem related to high rates of school evasion and dropout, and the curriculum became the great villain responsible for the caos established in the high school education.

In this sense, the principles of this reform are the same as those that underly the objectives of education for the youth in the capitalist society. In that model, the production mode sustained by the exploitation of wage workers must be reproduced, and this requires subservient men and women that can produce goods according to capitalist interests. Therefore, the high school rform is not neutral or free of the biases that keep the existence of the dominant hegemony.

In the following section, we seek to unveil how these interests appear in the high school reform and which segments of society are they catering for.

The hegemony private agents in the high school reform in Brazil

The conception of a State in ^{Gramsci (2016}) appears as an organic and dialectic relation between power and consensus, dictatorship and hegemony, economy and politics, direction and dominance. Therefore, the State is understood in a broad dimension, which involves not only the function it is usually ascribed, as political society, but also as civil society, so that an articulation is created around common interests. (^{GRAMSCI, 2016})

Such relation can be evidenced at times of recession and great economic crises. According to ^{Liguori (2003}), when analyzing the Great Depression of 1929, Gramsci noticed a link between economy and politics and evaluated the State interference in the private initiative. The Sardinian philosopher considered that during economic crises the State interferes aiming to “preserve the productive apparatus exactly as it exists in a certain moment” and reorganize it to develop it in parallel to the increase in population and the collective needs” (^{GRAMSCI, 2014}, p. 277), protecting capital gains.

^{Gramsci (2014}) identifies the activities in which the State develops actions to “save large entreprises in risk of bankruptcy or somehow endangered”. (p. 277). ^{Liguori (2003}, p. 177) understands that this relation reveals interests in which the “political sphere” serves the “economic sphere” by organizing actions aiming to keep the hegemony of the dominant classes within the social realm. In this sense, private organizations seek to keep their hegemony in the political society, since according to Gramsci (2016) the “State comprises the whole complex of theoretical and practical activities with which the ruling class not only justifies and keeps their dominance, but also obtains the active consensus of the ruled individuals”. (^{GRAMSCI, 2016}, p. 335)

Although the social society represents a consensus producing sphere, it is also the space where this consensus and hegemony are tested and where power relations and a field of struggle are established. Education is an area that is at the same time considered a mechanism that supports the production of the necessary consensus to keep the hegemony in the capitalist production mode, and the area that is affected by the setbacks of the State in times of crises. Due to a recession environment, the investments in education institutions, policies, and programs are reduced, and the interference of private segments in the area is justified.

Therefore, education is a field where disputes between the dominant segments and those that represent educators and researchers in the education area are observed. The former keep trying to impose their logic of dominance and power in education, while the latter defend education that is effectively public and of quality. This power relation around education became clear in the fights around the high school reform, during the events that preceded the Provisional Measure, MP nº 746/2016 until it was converted into a law.

^{Ferreti and Silva (2017}) analyzed public meetings carried out by the National Congress to debate the high school reform and the provisions to be included in that bill. According to those authors, the participants of such meetings were segments with representation among enterprises, mainly education private institutions, social movements and other organized entities that represent teachers and researchers in the education area. Those authors state that the participating individuals were people linked to the government, private education institutions, or education entrepreneurs, private university rectors, representatives of social movements, public academic associations, and political-organizing such as the Movimento em Defesa do Ensino Médio - MDEM (Movement to defend high school), União Nacional dos Estudantes - UNE (National Students’ Union), União Brasileira de Estudantes Secundaristas - UBES (High School Students’ Brazilian Union), and Associação Nacional pela Formação dos Profissionais da Educação - ANFOPE (National Association for the Development of Education Professionals), among others. (^{FERRETI; SILVA, 2017})

According to ^{Ferreti and Silva (2017}), those meetings revealed a dispute for hegemony in high school, in which, even if there was a balance in the number of participants that supported or opposed the reform proposal presented, the segments linked to the capital were more successful. They observed:

From the group of participants in the public meetings, a balance in the number of those that agreed and those that disagreed with the proposal was observed when considering the government agencies and individuals linked to the private sector (18) and those linked to social movements, education entities and the public sector (17). And even if there was an expressive number of individuals that opposed the MP (Provisional Measure), their arguments were not taken into consideration, as confirmed by the PL de Conversão (Conversion bill) nº 34/2016 and the Law nº 13.415/2017. (^{FERRETI; SILVA, 2017}, p. 396)

The facts reported show that the high school reform was not disconnected from interests that favor the society dominant sectors, and that it was designed to broaden the possibilities of domination and exploitation by the capital. ^{Ferreti and Silva (2017}, p. 396) explain that if we consider that there were “few alterations to the MP up to its transformation into a law” and that the suggestions of participants linked to the private sector were accepted, it becomes clear that the education was mainly thought to prioritize the market logic, since

The analyses of the public meetings revealed the dispute scenery around the objectives, contents, and formats of the Brazilian high school. The higher or lower link of the curriculum reform to pragmatic issues such as adjustment to economic and market demands, improvement of students’ performance in large-scale evaluations, or even limiting the access to higher education through professionalization, among others, characterize hegemony disputes around an education project that is a society project. It also unveils disputes that permeate the State and its decision makers at the legislative and executive levels, as well as their interlocutors. (^{FERRETI; SILVA, 2017}, p. 396)

In agreement with those authors, ^{Kuenzer (2017}) understands that the Brazilian high school is the object of dispute between entities or private segments, which:

[...] have broadened their space in the discussion of public policies, with the support and the conceptual identity of the managers of the Education Ministry (MEC) in the last ten years, and the Education Secretary Council that have defended the flexibilization of education, so that the students are exposed to the common (core) curriculum, but can also opt to deepen a specific academic area, or attend technical and professional courses, according to their trajectory and their life project. (^{KUENZER, 2017}, p. 333)

In an attempt to stop the interference of such segments in the education area, civil society entites and some intellectuals have opposed the hegemonic education project and organized themselves in a fight that aimed to improve the public education quality, as pointed out by ^{Kuenzer (2017}), who reports:

[...] historically, an education project has been sought to meet the interests of the working class, one that defends the organization of a curriculum that integrates in an organic and consistent manner the different dimensions of sciences, technology, culture, and work, as ways of ascribing meaning to the school knowleged and, in an integrated approach, to produce a better dialogue between the curriculum components, no matter whether they are organized as subjects, knowledge areas or other ways provided for in the Diretrizes Curriculares Nacionais do Ensino Médio (National High School Curriculum Guidelines). (^{KUENZER, 2017}, p. 333)

Building up a high school reform, carried out in a hurry, without a broad dialogue, even if facing the criticism of social movements, mainly those of students who occupied the public institution, shows that democratic principles were disrespected, since both the MP nº 746/2016 (Provisional Measure) and the Law nº 13.415/2017 incorporated the demands of the private sector and the Conselho Nacional de Secretários da Educação - CONSED (National Education Secretary Council). (^{KUENZER, 2017})

The possibility of developing partnerships between the education private and public systems is an element that indicates the capital hegemony around the reform. The following excerpts from the Law nº 13.415/2017 evidence this possibility:

§ 8^o The offer of technical and professional education as described in item V of the legal text, carried out in the institution or in partnership with other institutions, shall be previously approved by the State Education Council, confirmed by the State Education Secretary, and certified by the educations systems.

[...]

§ 11. To meet the requirements of the high school curriculum, education systems can recognize competences and execute agreements with recognized distance learning education institutions, upon proof of the following requirements:

I - practical demonstration; II - experience in supervised work or another kind of experience acquired outside of the school environment; III - technical education activities offered by other accredited education institutions; IV - courses offered by occupational centers or programs; V - estudies developed in national or foreign education institutions; VI - courses completed in distance learning programs or technology-mediated on site courses. (BRASIL, 2017)

Pursuant to the Law nº 13.415/2017, partnerships between education public and private entities might occur through the offer of technical courses, distance learning courses, and also by hiring companies that develop platforms for this teaching modality. The Diretrizes Curriculares do Ensino Médio (High School Curriculum Guidelines) confirmed these possibilities by indicating that up to 20% of the high school workload in day courses, and 30% of the workload of evening courses can be completed in distance learning courses, as set forth in the Resolution nº 03 of 21^st November 2018, which updated the Diretrizes Curriculares Nacionais do Ensino Médio (National High School Curriculum Guidelines):

Distance learning activities can cover up to 20% (twenty per cent) of the total workload, and might provide both general basic education and, preferably, address the curriculum formative itineraries, since there is proper technological support - either digital or not - as well as pedagogical. They must be monitored/coordinated by and educator from the school where the student is enrolled, and at the discretion of the education systems, they might be expanded up to 30% (thirty per cent) in high school evening courses. (BRASIL, 2018, p. 11)

In addition to the speeded education characteristic of distance learning, this type of organization enables the transfer of public resources to segments of enterprises and/or associations that market education material such as booklets, software, teachers’ and managers’ training courses, which provide these segments with high profitability. (^{CAETANO; COMERLATTO, 2018})

The “Guia de implementação do novo Ensino Médio” (New High School Implementation Guide) elaborated by MEC and CONSED indicates the possibility of executing partnerships with private agents to offer the formative itineraries:

Articulating partnerships with different institutions is important, since it will help the supply of formative itineraries for which the public institutions still lack full physical, operational, and human resources. To achieve this aim, previous mapping of the possibilities of partnerships must be carried out, considering those institutions that already offer regular couses and those that can do it in each municipality. The need for recognition of these partnerships by the education systems must be considered. (MEC; CONSED, 2018, n.p.)

The initiatives that enable the interference of private agents in public education contribute to the reduction in investments in public institutions and, consequently, to the precarization of education in Brazilian schools. Thus, when endorsing the execution of partnerships with private segments, CONSED, as a representative entity of the education secretaries, reaffirms its position favoring the capital, highlighting the interests that guide the implementation of the New High School. ^{Araújo (2019}, p. 55-56) draws attention to these interests, emphasizing that the high school reform meets mainly the demands of entrepreneurs or private groups that seek the flexibilization of the “need to hire qualified teachers” and the qualification of workforce to the market.

When discussing the interference of the entrepreneurs in education, ^{Peroni (2011}) questions the implications of these actions in public education:

We question the meaning of the public system waiving its prerogatives of offering good quality public education and buying a ready made product, which includes even the school curriculum. Since the lessons supplied are ready and teachers cannot change them, even the fact that the school management is monitored by an external agent, which turns the individuals responsible for the education into bureaucrats snowed under paper work, since it goes against the LDB/96 regarding the education democratic management. (^{PERONI, 2011}, p. 37)

The relation between civil and political societies in this case regards economic and ideological aspects. When considering the high school reform, ^{Caetano and Comerlatto (2018}) understand that the issues at stake are both the limitation to the critical thought and shortening of the youth education, as well as the transfer of public resources to the private initiative. According to those authors, to implement this reform , MEC took a “ 250 million dollar loan from BIRD - Banco Interamericano de Desenvolvimento” (Inter American Development Bank). (^{CAETANO; COMERLATTO, 2018}). Out of the total value, “221 million dollars are destined to the Programa para Resultados - PforR” (Result Program) (CAETANO; COMERLATTO, 2018), and 21 million dollars are destined to segment that offer consultancy in the education area. Analyzing the facts presented, those authors point out that this investment might be destined to private enterprises rather than the education public institutions. (CAETANO; COMERLATTO, 2018)

Those authors also emphasize that the production of the BNCC document that defines the high school core curriculum was also permeated by interests favoring private companies (^{CAETANO; COMERLATTO, 2018}). The Movimento pela Base Nacional Comum - MBNC (Common Curricular Base Movement), which coordinated the process of construction of the BNCC, received financial support from institutions directly linked to the capital such as the foundations Lemann, Itaú, Cesgranrio, Roberto Marinho, and institutes Ayrton Senna, Unibanco, and Todos pela Educação (All pro education). (CAETANO; COMERLATTO, 2018)

The facts and actions that permeated the high school reform showed that the high school is affected by disputes, in which power relations develop aiming to achieve hegemony and shape the Brazilian education. In such relation, hegemony is in the hands of the capital owners, who in addition to obtaining profits with the partnerships executed with public institutions, also interfere the Brazilian youth’s ways of thiking and acting. This occurs because materials, content, teaching methods produced, courses and lectures provided by those entities tend to reproduce the burgeois order and protect the domination base that moves capital, that is, wage work.

Therefore, in the struggle for hegemony control that occurs in education, the high school reform met the interests of the private sector representatives. In this case, the “intellectual and moral direction” developed in a system of alaliances between the groups linked to the capital, so that the private initiative was ascribed a global character, coordinating all social relations.

Final Considerations

The Brazilian high school is object of fight between private segments with representation in economy, politics, and culture. These private hegemony apparatuses are benefitted by education policies that cater for their interests in moments of crises or economic recession. Such education policies guarantee their profitability with partnerships executed with public institutions, sales of material, content, teaching methods produced, and courses or lectures given, among other commercial or economic partnerships.

Such initiatives, in addition to broadening the private segment possibilities of profitability, tend to reproduce the burgeois order regarding thoughts and consensual ways of thinking that contribute to the maintenance of the domination base that moves capital, namely, wage work and surplus extraction, showing the great influence of the private segments, not only in the economy sphere, but also in the thought guidance and in the action of groups or classes that occupy subaltern positions in civil society.

In the high school reform there was dispute for hegemony. On the one hand, social movements, mainly the students’ movement, segments linked to teachers and education researchers opposed the reform proposed, defending teaching and education that met the interests of the socially explored segments. On the other hand, groups or segments linked to the capital supported the reform based on the argument that it was in tune with a movement of democratization and improvement of the quality of education.

In the fight for hegemony control that occurs in education, the high school reform was aligned to the interests of the private sector representatives. Thus, the “intellectual and moral direction” was made concrete through a system of alliances between groups linked to the capital, which are understood here as hegemony private apparatuses, so that private interests gained a global character, coordinating all the social relations.