The importance of Florestan Fernandes in the present public-school issue

Abstract

We argue that the struggle for the public-school has specific boundaries within the dependent capitalism. Following a line of defense proposed by a fundamental author of this agenda in Brazil, Florestan Fernandes, we make an interdisciplinary analysis of the history of Brazilian socioeconomic thought in the Brazilian public education, based on the formation of a peculiar bourgeois revolution in Brazil during the 20th century, to show the importance of this debate today. The article is urgent on the grounds that the challenges of our formation are still valid, as the extreme social segregation in the country lingers on. Besides, at the present time, the government is ideologically attacking thew university autonomy, and, through economic policy, it is weakening the public education in favor of private education.