Eficiência do gasto público e qualidade do ensino fundamental no Brasil

Abstract

Quality education is a fundamental attribute for the development of a nation. Through education, it is possible to generate wealth, while the level of education directly impacts human capital, which in turn is converted into a factor of production, increasing the generation of goods and consequently leveraging the performance of municipalities, states, countries. In this regard, this work sought to demonstrate the factors that favor this expansion of the basic education quality, pillar of all knowledge. Supported by the 1988 Constitution, which determines that education is one of the citizens' social rights, it is recognized that public policies and education management are needed to direct attention to basic education in the country. Thus, Fundef, later replaced by Fundeb, plays its role in trying to equalize the transfer of resources to be invested in basic education by the country. Consequently, Ideb was created to assess the quality of education offered by public schools, setting goals to be met by each of them, with the aim of reaching six points by 2022. Given this context, this research was concerned with analyzing the impacts of finance in education, based on transfers from Fundeb, with the aim of, within the scope of the public budget, analyzing the expenditure and public spending efficiency on the basic education quality in Brazilian public schools. Thus, the data used in this research come from INEP's databases: Prova Brasil and Censo Escolar; FINBRA: accounting data for municipalities and summary report on budget execution, by municipality; from the National Treasury: transfers to States and Municipalities (Fundef and Fundeb) and from IBGE: municipal GDP per capita and estimated population. After collection, the data were processed and adjusted for the analysis. As a performance measure, Ideb was considered by school, and for the municipality level, the average Ideb grades of initial years (4th grade / 5th year) and final years (8th grade / 9th year) were averaged, becoming the proxy for teaching quality. A socioeconomic indicator (ISE) was also built based on the responses given by the students to the Prova Brasil questionnaire, related to the possession of assets. For education spending, an indicator of the level of realization of expenditure was constructed (expenditure on education executed / budgeted expenditure). The data statistical analysis was carried out, using descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analysis of panel data. Three regression models were created: the first, to assess the effects of variables from the level of the local economy, the socioeconomic level of the students and the level of the school, using the Ideb of the schools as a dependent variable; the second, to verify the effect of public spending on education through Fundeb on the quality of basic education, both from 2007 to 2017, and the third model, to analyze the effect of the public spending efficiency, through the percentage of fulfillment of the planned resource (budgeted ) versus executed, in the basic education quality, for the period from 2015 to 2019, the latter two using the Ideb by municipality as a proxy. The results showed that the total number of students per school, indicating that a large number of students per school affects the IDEB result, while the number of teachers and classes has a positive influence. As for the students’ characteristics, the total number of students with special needs per school and the ISE positively impact the result of the IDEB, the better for the student's family environment, the better results it will generate. As for the municipalities characteristics, population and municipal GDP per capita, it also indicates the best results in the evaluations. Fundeb proved to be important for leveraging the education quality by municipality. Finally, the result presented by the expenditure, object of this study, that increases in investment in education as a whole don’t guarantee increments in the IDEB score, concluding that larger portions of resources are destined for poorer municipalities, which need more resources for infrastructure, and not for those who already perform better. Thus, at the end of this dissertation, a technological product called Public Spending Efficiency in Education - IEGPE is proposed.