When the State Does Not Reach: The Effectiveness of Educational Programs in Settlements, Indigenous, and Quilombo Communities

Abstract

The article evaluates the effective benefits of the policy to decentralize federal education resources to schools in indigenous and quilombo communities, and settlements. Based on the quantitative analysis of the Basic Education Census data, information on balance and transfer of values from the Dinheiro Direto na Escola Program, and data from the Federation of Industry of Rio de Janeiro, the article relates the volume of transferred resources, the physical structure of schools, and state capacity of the federated entities. The initial hypothesis is that historically excluded communities are in municipalities with low state capacity and greater difficulty to develop differentiated educational policies. The article also raises the hypothesis of the racialization of the State, which normalizes the precarious life of traditional populations. It concludes by calling attention to the complexity of implementing decentralized policies for these communities and the importance of including the role of the racial State in their reflections and evaluations.