Bolsonaro vetoes Ministry of Education budget allocated to school transportation and full-time education.

247 - Jair Bolsonaro's (PL) vetoes to the Ministry of Education's budget are expected to directly affect the school transportation program, the provision of full-time education for teenagers, and the preparation of schools for the new high school curriculum. The veto, according to the newspaper... The Globe, withdraws R$ 402 million from basic education.

In total, the ministry suffered a cut of R$ 739,8 million, also affecting higher education and other areas of the Ministry of Education. 

According to a survey by the NGO Todos pela Educação (All for Education), the largest cut, 35%, is in support for the development of Basic Education, from which R$ 324 million was removed. This sector includes programs such as the one to promote full-time high schools, which transfers resources to states and municipalities to expand the availability of places, and programs for the implementation of the National Common Curriculum Base and the new high school curriculum, which came into effect this year and has already been implemented unevenly across the country.

"The Ministry of Education keeps cutting its resources. What increases only increases because it's mandatory and constitutional, which is the case with Fundeb, for example," denounces Lucas Hoogerbrugge, Government Relations leader at Todos Pela Educação (All for Education). "By cutting discretionary spending, which is where educational policy is made, it's as if the government is saying: now the Ministry of Education only pushes buttons and only pays what's in the law."

The cut for the acquisition of school transport vehicles – especially important in smaller cities where students have no other transportation option – was R$ 22 million. In the 2021 budget, the program consumed approximately R$ 770 million and was allocated to 5.256 municipalities. "At this moment, we needed to increase investments to attract children back to school. School transport plays an important role in controlling absenteeism and dropout rates," says Hoogerbrugge.

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