FINANCING THE FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT TO EDUCATION

REFLECTIONS ON THE IMPACTS OF CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT Nº 95/2016 FROM RAWLS' THEORY OF JUSTICE

Abstract

In this research is questioned the possibility of change in the means of financing education in Brazil, by the adoption of the new tax regime outlined in the Constitutional Amendment nº 95/2016, from the political conception of the person adopted in John Rawls Theory of Justice and the idea of the right to basic education as an essential constitutional element. The deductive method of approach and theoretical nature research are used, highlighting the central aspects of Rawls's theory, from its main texts and secondary sources (bibliographic research). For Rawls, there is a prior principle to the first principle which imposes the satisfaction of citizens' basic needs, at least so that they can effectively exercise their fundamental rights and freedoms, which would be an essential constitutional element. From this perspective, basic education must be provided by the State to allow citizens to act from their political conception, which requires their participation as a full member of a cooperative society. To have the basic education is, therefore, presupposed to be citizen, within the political conception of Rawls. From his theory, it is possible to defend the impossibility of reducing the protection, at constitutional level, of the right to basic education, as regards the aspect of binding financial resources, before reaching the universalization of quality basic education for whole society.