Fiscal austerity as a financing policy for education: The case of the county of Curitiba-PR between 2017 and 2019

Abstract

The objective of this research was to understand the possible factors that justified the adoption of fiscal austerity in the financing of public education in the city of Curitiba-PR between 2017 and 2019, as well as its effects on budget execution. Using a qualitative approach, this case study is based on the assumption that, if the municipal federated entity is a space endowed with a relative federative autonomy in the allocation of resources, there is political dispute over the public fund. Further, as it is a macroeconomic debate, there was a need to consider local singularities. In the case analyzed, austerity was adopted as a fiscal management policy, and the reduction of investment in education was not supported by the usual justification for its choice, the economic crisis within the scope of the federated entity. Rather, it reverberated in the loss of space in education in budget execution, supported by public actions that, as a result of the budget cut, resulted in worsened rights of education workers. The national political context during the case analysis period, including the party political ideology and the alleged interests of the local segments, were contextualized as explanatory hypotheses for the analysis of the case.