Special Education Public-Private Funding: Who Wins and Who Loses in the Benemerence Market?

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the game of disputes and negotiations for public resources between public-private partnerships in special education funding. The discussions come from the bibliographic and documental review of works aligned with our objective, supported by the theoretical assumptions of historical-dialectical materialism (MARX, 1985). In the context of the State's exoneration concerning social policies, we perceived in the consulted sources that the public-private partnerships win the dispute in the benemerence market to the expense of the special education public, seeking the resources of public funding and participation in the direction of educational policies. It was also evident that the partnership between the State and the private sector contributed to public education precariousness, fueling tensions between conquered and effective rights and the non-compliance with PNE 2014-2024 goals and the agreements signed between Brazil and international organizations, such as the Declaration of Salamanca (1994). On the other hand, the findings revealed some exit ways to combat the social and educational apartheid disseminated by the business class seeking to dispute for the public fund: develop organization capacity, access to information, and internal communication to ensure public investments; overcome centralized management in school spaces; and strengthen social control through social and popular participation.