School Without a Party or Broken School?

Abstract

The School Without a Party project must be understood within a broader context: the international crisis of the capitalist system, that in it’s neoliberal phase proves it’s inability to solve the immense problems caused by it’s own dynamic, one that produces social and educational inequalities. In Brazil, this process was accelerated in the 1990s, starting under the Collor government and consolidated during the rule of Fernando Henrique Cardoso. It slowed in the Lula and Dilma governments, which stimulated public investments in social areas, improving the living conditions of popular sectors. The slowdown of this process generated reactions in the conservative sectors of Brazilian society, provoking the overthrow of the Dilma government and the imprisonment of Lula, as well as political and institutional measures to dismantle policies and social investments. The School Without a Party project was created in this context, advocating a position of "neutrality" of the teachers, who supposedly were "indoctrinating" the students. They also advocate for the delimitation of the contents that the school should develop, in contrast to those contents that would be the exclusive responsibility of the family. This article seeks to understand, based on the investigation of the actions and discourses of it’s proponents and from the perspective of the critical literature regarding the project, the foundations of the School without a Party project, it’s legal frameworks, and the individuals and groups that become targets of it’s propositions.