This paper reviews the analyses of the prevailing paradigm in administration and economics in their approach to education. Deriving from these investigation lines, some proposals were created for changes in the regulation and assignment of resources to education. These proposals, founded on the lack of financial support to enhance quality, show some persistence on mechanisms that range from decentralized strategies to total mercantilization. In the first case, some mechanisms are created to attract different kinds of public, but for different reasons and with different kinds of reach. In the second case, State action would be limited to the establishment of a few rules.
the role of the State in education; economics and administration; decentralization