The disordered expansion of spending under the Lula government has affected essential policies, such as access to textbooks in public schools. The Ministry of Education seeks an additional R$ 1.4 billion to order exemplars for high school in 2026, but delays continue. This jeopardizes timely delivery for the school year.
Since the start of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's (PT) government, the disordered expansion of federal spending has not only affected monetary policy, with high interest rates to control inflation, but also essential public policies, such as textbook provision.
For publishers to deliver the works by the start of the 2026 school year, orders should have been placed by August. However, in July, there was still no request for a considerable portion of the about 240 million exemplars needed, as revealed by Folha. After the report, the Ministry of Education (MEC) stated it had obtained funds to fully meet the demand, but by the end of August, the books had not been purchased by the National Fund for Education Development (FNDE), an agency linked to the MEC.
Now, with only two months left in the year, the problem persists. There are R$ 2.3 billion reserved, but the MEC requests R$ 3.7 billion — high school works alone would cost about R$ 1.4 billion. In a memo delivered to the economic team last week, the FNDE warned that the delay in transfers "compromises, also, the national delivery of exemplars in time for use by students." A similar communiqué was sent in August.
In July, of the about 59 million works for the early years of elementary school, only 23 million for Portuguese and mathematics were ordered. No consumable exemplars (workbooks) for history, geography, and sciences, from 1st to 3rd grade, and for arts, from 1st to 5th grade, were acquired. For the final years (6th to 9th), only Portuguese and mathematics were covered.
Given Brazil's poor education indicators — the country ranked among the last in the 2024 International Study of Trends in Mathematics and Sciences, outperformed by Chile —, this situation is criticized. The government expanded spending on retirements and social benefits, squeezing non-mandatory programs like the National Textbook Program (PNLD) since 2023. Without fiscal balance, cuts in public services could worsen poverty.