Itaú Social Foundation, Renaissance 2010, inequalities and segregation: critical analysis of the application of the US education model in Brazil

Abstract

This article performs a critical analysis of the projects advocated by business organizations that propose public education policies in Brazil (in this case, the Itaú Social Foundation). To this end, the article presents, based on documents signed by the FIS, how this institution defends that measures implemented in the U.S. (such as Chicago’s Renaissance 2010) serve as a model for the country. Then, based on quantitative and qualitative data, derived from bibliographic research in primary and secondary sources in Brazil and the USA, the paper discusses results of these projects in their place of origin (especially Chicago). Thus, it is shown how, contrary to what their proponents indicate, such guidelines can be related to the maintenance and worsening of social issues, such as racial segregation. Finally, the paper demonstrates that, despite these reforms being presented as the expression of a social consensus, in the USA, the school community has led intense mobilizations against them. Therefore, considering this scenario, the article reflects how the insistence on maintaining these guidelines is not justified by data, but by the political and economic interest of capital and its institutions.