Equality and equity in the design of education policies: A case study of the Brazilian National Fund for Education Development (FNDE)

Abstract

This article presents the definitions and concepts associated to meritocracy, equality and equity, and a methodological proposal that allows an empirical application to analyze if and how public policies seek to correct social inequalities. A classification of eight education programs carried out by the Fundo Nacional de Desenvolvimento da Educação was chosen to be analyzed, observing changes that took place across 25 years (1995-2020). The results show that these programs, initially, adopted the principle of equality in their institutional design and, later, an equity principle. However, the introduction of equity principles did not eliminate the equality principles. On the contrary, they were additional criteria adopted incrementally throughout different governments. Principles of meritocracy to allocate this federal fund to subnational governments were not identified.