Abstract
This article analyzes the reform of Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação Nacional (LDB – Law of Directives and Bases of National Education 9,394/1996), by Law 9,475/1997, regarding religious education in public schools. Such reform was triggered by the transverse veto of President Fernando Henrique Cardoso (FHC), who invited the National Congress to implement the changes in the LDB, according to the demands of the National Conference of the Brazilian [Catholic] Bishops. The main source of information were Diário da Câmara dos Deputados and Diário do Senado Federal (Journal of the House of Representatives and Journal of the Senate). The arguments of deputies and senators about the issues under discussion were confronted, which resulted in a panorama in which the defenders of the demands of the Catholic Church assumed a hegemonic position. Their main demand was the removal of the impediment to use public funds for religious education in public schools, specifically for the payment of teachers. Such clause existed in the first LDB (1961), but was abolished in 1971, at the height of the dictatorship. A similar procedure was adopted in 1997, with equal success. In addition to showing the positions in confrontation, the author raises hypotheses about the reasons for the rapid change in the positions of political parties. In addition to funding, the author focuses on the ideological dimension of the reform of LDB, especially the definition of religious education as an integral part of the basic training of citizens. The conclusion of the article is that the reform of LDB reduced the autonomy of the educational field in Brazil by institutionalizing its overlap with the religious field.
LDB; Brazilian education; Educational policy; Religious education; Secularism