O valor do dinheiro e o preço da escola: uma análise interdisciplinar da economicidade e dos riscos na parceria público-privada da educação infantil de Caxias do Sul

Abstract

This dissertation analyzes how the design of the Public-Private Partnership for Early Childhood Education in Caxias do Sul combines the promise of economic efficiency and risk transfer with fiscal costs, institutional constraints, and potential effects on the material conditions, equity, and organization of public schools. The 25-year administrative concession provides for the construction, maintenance, preservation, and operation of non-pedagogical services in 31 municipal education units, while pedagogical management remains under the responsibility of the public authority. The study adopts an interdisciplinary approach, bringing together Administrative Law, Public Administration (with an emphasis on government auditing), and the Sociology of Education. The theoretical framework draws on Christian Laval’s contributions concerning the application of corporate rationality to schools and Thomas Popkewitz’s concepts of systems of reason, classifications, and forms of governance. It also incorporates debates on social stratification, the Sociology of Childhood, and school materiality. This is a qualitative, bibliographic, and documentary study. The documentary corpus comprises the bidding notice, the concession agreement, the terms of reference, the risk matrix, the Performance Measurement System, demand and Value for Money studies, the business plan, and documents concerning public guarantees. The experience of Belo Horizonte and the British reassessment of the Private Finance Initiative are used as comparative references. The analysis shows that the projected advantages do not derive solely from the bid discount or the anticipation of investments, since they depend on financial assumptions, risk pricing and effective risk transfer, as well as on the municipality’s capacity to monitor the contract. Payments, guarantees, and economic-financial rebalancing provisions generate longterm fiscal commitments, while the integration of construction and maintenance may improve the availability and preservation of school infrastructure. The contractual separation between pedagogical and non-pedagogical services defines responsibilities but does not make independent dimensions that remain interconnected in everyday school life. The territorial distribution of the units may contribute to expanding access; however, its effects on inequalities will depend on the correspondence between location, demand, and the social conditions of the children served. The study concludes that the public value of the partnership cannot be assessed solely through financial costs or the physical delivery of schools. Economic efficiency, risks, fiscal sustainability, governance, spatial adaptability, equity, and educational purposes must be considered jointly. As the concession is still at an early stage, its concrete effects on school communities should be examined through future research.