SP JUSTICE ANNULATIONS Auctions from new state schools in Tarcísio de Freitas

Judge Luiz Manuel Fonseca Pires, from the 3rd Court of Public Finance of São Paulo, recognized as illegal the two auctions that were held last year to grant the management of state school activities to private initiative. With this, the two auctions were annulled.

“In the light of the foregoing, I judge the request to recognize the illegality of granting the private initiative of the management of activities developed in the public schools of the State of São Paulo and to decree the invalidity of auctions held on October 29 and November 4, 2024,” the judge wrote.

The action was filed by the Union of Teachers of the State of São Paulo (Apeoesp), which entered into the court decision. “Apeoesp has won another victory in court against the Privatization Program of State Schools of Tarcísio de Freitas and Renato Feder (State Secretary of Education). Judge Luís Manuel Fonseca Pires, from the 3rd Public Finance Court, gave a judgment of merit in Apeoesp Public Civil Action, which suspends the effects of 33 schools held on the São Paulo Stock Exchange, ”says the union in a publication on its website.

Read more: “Hammer”: Tarcisio doubles and includes social privatization, says columnist

The private public partner (PPP) of new schools, proposed by the government of Tarcísio de Freitas, provided that 33 state teaching units were built and administratively managed by private initiative, which would be responsible for services such as cleaning, maintenance, food and internet, for example. The purpose of this project, says the government, is to improve and modernize the infrastructure of state schools, to ensure more time for managers and teachers to engage in teaching teaching activities.

For the judge, however, it would not be possible to “dissociate the physical (school) space of pedagogical activity”.

“The bidding and pretense of granting the private management of public schools compromises the public education service because they mistakenly be possible to be possible to dissociate the physical space of pedagogical activity. It is an error of understanding about the multiple meanings of pedagogy by supporting some imaginary independence of the physical structure in relation to the educational project, an artificial division between the management of the physical school space and the activity developed in the classroom is proposed. The risk of this public policy, it is worth repeating, is the commitment of pedagogical autonomy because it directly affects democratic management, ”wrote the judge.

The auctions

The first of these auctions, held in October last year, was won by the new West SP consortium, which took over the West Lot. The amount offered was R $ 11,989,753.71 of the expected consideration of R $ 15.2 million, which resulted in a drug of 21.43%. The announcement involved the construction of 17 schools, with 462 classrooms and 17.1 thousand vacancies.

Already the second auction, from the east lot, was bid by the SP+schools consortium. The amount offered was R $ 11,546,994.12 of the expected consideration of R $ 14,901,270.00 million, which resulted in a disagerate of 22.51%. The group was responsible for building 16 teaching units that would serve 17,6 thousand students in 476 classrooms.

By means of a statement, the State Attorney General (PGE/SP) reported that it was not intimidated about this decision.

“The State of São Paulo defends the continuity of the public-private partnership project (PPP) new schools, challenging a decision that interferes with the regular execution of the public education policy, and reinforces that the pedagogical part of the education units will continue under the management of the State Department of Education. Aimed at the construction of 33 new school units, the project aims to serve 35,000 students in elementary and high school. With an expected investment of about R $ 2.1 billion, PPP aims to improve and modernize the infrastructure of schools in the network, ”wrote the agency.