Article - What Is the Value of a Quality Early Childhood Education?

Abstract

This study aims to problematize how the future evaluation of K-12 educational offers and reflects on the guidelines that may ground quality parameters for childhood education after the determinations of the new Fundeb. We analyzed data from the School Census of K-12 Education done by Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisas Educacionais Anísio Teixeira (Inep) and the Demographic Census of IBGE. Based on this data, we discuss how far the wishful thinking of childhood education lies. We show that children’s access to kindergarten and preschool needs to be more equitable, public investment needs to be guided towards public systems, and allocating resources is a key mechanism to reducing inequality. Finally, our findings point out the need to reinforce the concept of Custo Aluno Qualidade (CAQ- Student Quality Cost), sizing the necessary input to scale the access of all children to a quality childhood education.