Consórcios intermunicipais ou arranjos de desenvolvimento da educação? Uma análise de duas experiências no federalismo educacional brasileiro

Abstract

The article analyzes two models of territorial associativism in Brazil’s education in the state of Sao Paulo: the Intermunicipal Consortium of Paranapanema Valley and the Education Development Arrangement of the Noroeste Paulista. We seek to understand the reasons that lead municipalities within similar demographic and socioeconomic contexts to choose one of these types of territorial cooperation, analysing their similarities and differences. Based on the literature, we defined an analytical model with three key dimensions: regional context and trajectory of the arrangement, institutional design and governance model, and funding mechanisms and federal induction. The technique of the most similar cases was used, as the central difference is the two associativism models analyzed as the dependent variable. The research analyzed secondary data from publications and documents and primary data from in-depth interviews with leaders of the Consortium and the Arrangement. The findings show that the choice for a consortium or an arrangement for education is explained by the dimensions of the analytical model proposed, especially, endogenous factors: the institutional design, the decision-making process, and the governance model have featured both cases, and one of them included the path of the arrangement. In only one case, contextual conditions related to the arrangement’s path were relevant and, in none of them, funding had positive effects.