A participação dos conselhos de educação nas políticas públicas dos municípios: um estudo a partir de experiências do Conselho Municipal de Educação de Uberlândia

Abstract

National, State and Municipal Education Councils were created in Brazil, during the Imperial period, and had a long history of advances and backtracking due to its functions and guidelines, until it arrived at what is known today. In the beginning, the councils served the purposes of the Catholic Church and the local policies of certain municipalities, to be subsequently re-oriented by the National Government, as instruments, at the technical level, to support the development and popular policies of the dictatorial regime. During the Military Regime, they served as monitoring and control instruments. However, after the 80 s, they acquired new colors, because they consisted of struggle and support for the social movements. In the 90 s, the constitutions of the Educational Councils became part of the neo-liberal public policies, having as objective the sustainement of its decentralization proposals. However, the principle of Parcipative Democracy also interfered in their effective process, especially at the local level, such as was the case with the Municipal Education Council of Uberlândia. Therefore, this research studied the constitution and establishment of the Municipal Education Council of Uberlândia, in a government characterized by a Liberal Democracy and in one marked by the Participative Democracy. Methodologicaly, a qualitative research was done, by analyses of the normative legal apparatus, literature research and analysis of the minutes of the Municipal Educational Council of Uberlândia meetings. From these it was possible to infer that the search for the education democratization via Municipal Council of Education, still depends on political gestures, which favor a reciprocal collaborations among the different government and civil society spheres, leaving aside the private interests and proposals that want to bring the education to the consumer market.