The aim of this article is to provide an evaluation of the FUNDEF's (Fund for the Maintenance and Development of Primary School Education and the Valorization of Primary School Teaching) ability to promote a national policy for equity. The study looks at juridical and institutional aspects linked to the program's design and to the fiscal impact of the FUNDEF, as well as its relationship to policies aimed at the correction of inter-state inequalities. The methodology employed analyzes the trajectory of values spent on student/per year in different states and on the supplementary and re-distributive role that the Union plays in the financing of the Fund, in order to verify if the program is able to establish a tendency of convergence around a national average. In this light, we pretend to evaluate whether or not the FUNDEF represents an important step toward federative balance in the financing of primary school education. We come to the conclusion that the FUNDEF is an exemplary case for our comprehension of the limits that fiscal adjustment imposes on the increase of social expenses. In the case of the FUNDEF, this fiscal restriction is observed through the reduction of the federal resources employed to complement state funds, a consequence of the low national value that has been established. This has led to the widening of inter-state inequalities in the financing of primary school education, after six years of the program's existence.
FUNDEF; inter-state inequality; financing; fiscal restriction
