So, in Brazilian education news, the Chamber of Deputies has approved a Provisional Measure (MP 1075/2021) that allows people who studied in private schools to be eligible for ProUni, a program offering scholarships in private higher education institutions to low-income people.
A Provisional Measure, acronym'd as MP, is a legal act in Brazil through which the president (currently, Jair Bolsonaro) can, "in important and urgent cases", enact laws effective for a maximum of 60 days without approval by the National Congress. The provisional measure may be renewed once for an additional 60 days, after which it ceases to be in force unless the National Congress has approved it and made it law.
According to the current rules of ProUni, students who completed high school in a public school or e in a private school with a full scholarship can apply for a scholarship from the program. The MP expands the scope of the program and now allows access to those who attended secondary school partially or fully in the private network, even without a full or partial scholarship.
The income rule remains the same even with the MP: full scholarship for those with a per capita monthly family income of up to 1.5 minimum wage and partial scholarship for those with an income of up to three minimum wages. One minimum wage in Brazil is R$ 1,212 (~US$ 217,18).
The change will take effect from July 2022 and establishes a ranking order for the distribution of scholarships, maintaining priority for public school graduates:
person with a disability when the reservation of places per quota is less than one scholarship in progress, shift, place of offer, and institution;
public school teacher for undergraduate, higher education, and pedagogy courses, regardless of income;
student who has completed high school in a public school;
student who has attended part of high school in the public network and part in the private network with a full scholarship from the institution;
student who has attended part of high school in the public network and part in the private network with a partial scholarship from the institution or without a scholarship;
student who has completed high school in the private network with a full scholarship from the institution;
and student who has completed high school in the private network with a partial scholarship from the institution or without a scholarship.
There's also changes in the separation of the scholarships reserved for the quotas destined to people with disabilities, indigenous, or mixed race.
The total amount of scholarships for quota holders is calculated according to the proportion of people who self-declared that they belong to any of these groups according to the last census by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), but today there is no separation between the subgroups of ethnicity (indigenous, black, and brown) and person with disabilities.
With the new rules, the quota calculation will follow the percentage of each subgroup.
On this topic, the rapporteur, deputy Átila Lira (right-wing Progressive Party - PP), included a new subgroup: students coming from family and institutional care services to be included in the database of the National Adoption and Reception System, of the National Council of Justice (CNJ). The percentage will be defined in regulation of the Executive Branch.
"The inclusion of private high school graduates is meritorious, insofar as the socioeconomic criterion of income is not changed and little affects the quantitative potential for more vacancies that can be filled.", said Átila Lira.
The proposal eliminated 25% partial grants from the program. If sanctioned as it is, the text provides for the granting of full scholarships and partial scholarships of 50% for students at private universities.
The text prohibits the accumulation of scholarships linked to ProUni and the granting of scholarships linked to the program for students enrolled in public or ongoing universities, different shifts, and private institutions with a FIES contract (Student Financing Fund, a government guaranteed loan). The transfer of the scholarship will only occur if there is acceptance by the private educational institutions of origin and destination and will be prohibited when the beneficiary has reached 75% of the course load of the original course.
Deputy Hildo Rocha (right-wing Brazilian Democratic Movement party) said that the MP corrects a mistake in the law. "This makes it possible for the scholarships offered to be even used, because in recent years, what we have noticed and verified is that the scholarships offered are not used because there are not enough public school students who have achieved the National High School Exam (ENEM) score and whose family income is up to three minimum wages per capita."
ENEM is, roughly speaking, Brazil's SATs.
Even deputy Henrique Fontana (left-leaning Workers' Party - PT) defended the expansion of access to ProUni. "This is something positive, because as we have today, unfortunately, idleness in the occupation of these ProUni vacancies, with the opening of this possibility we will probably have the use of more vacancies with access to more young people to universities.", he said.
Indeeed, according to the union of higher education sponsors in Brazil (Semesp), in 2020, 56.8% of the vacancies for partial scholarships were not used.
However, the MP also attracted criticism. Rogerio da Veiga, a specialist in public policy and government management, says the MP ends the focalization of the program, given that, the income criteria, without the public school criteria, rules out only 10% of the Brazilian population, as 90% of Brazilians earn less than R$ 3,500 (~US$ 744.35).
"By business logic, what will happen: the conversion of full scholarships into partial scholarships that will be occupied by young people from private schools. Since an extra student costs little, 50% of tuition is profit.", Veiga says in a Twitter thread. "The public school student who cannot afford to pay will have fewer full scholarships to choose from, and even greater competition. The new rule makes it worse - and a lot worse - for the public school student, who is at the bottom of the program's income limit, and will replace poor young people from public schools who study for free with not-so-poor young people from private schools who pay half the price. An excellent deal for Higher Education Institutions, which will increase their revenues and increase their exemption. And it will be another public expenditure that, instead of reducing inequality, will increase inequality and perpetuate it."
"At first, the proposed change may lead us to believe that the private university will be accessible to a group of low-income students whose parents struggle to pay for a private school.", Viega further says in article. "These students do not think it is fair to be excluded from ProUni and they have a reason, as they have a socioeconomic profile similar to that of public school students. However, low-income families who can afford private schools are often only able to afford the tuition fees of low-quality institutions. With the change in ProUni, these students will be able to seek scholarships, but in competition with several others from families with higher incomes and who studied in higher quality schools. No wonder, performance in competitive selection processes is usually highly correlated with family income. Thus, with rare exceptions, these low-income youth will continue to be in disadvantage."
He also counters the argument about idle vacancies. "Without difficulty in taking partial scholarships, the tendency will be that higher education institutions will prefer to offer them and leave full scholarships at the minimum level (1 in 22 enrollments). This increases their income and tax exemption, but decreases the full scholarships required by low-income public school students." Right now, they must offer a full scholarship for every 10.7 enrollments, or a full scholarship for every 22 enrollments and the difference in partial scholarships of 50% or 25%.
"The government MP, which was approved yesterday in the Chamber, does away with this [public school] criterion and, consequently, will make it even more difficult for the poor to access full scholarships. The government should promote the fight against inequalities and not the other way around! Bolsonaro seal of incompetence.", said deputy and education activist Tabata Amaral, from the left-leaning Brazilian Socialist Party - PSB.
Nevertheless, MP 1075/2021 was approved in a symbolic vote in the Chamber of Deputies on April 12th, 2022, and now goes to the Senate. It needs to be voted on by May 16 so it doesn't expire.
Sources: x, x, x, x
