STF changes rules for the distribution of education salary and benefits Northeast states

The Federal Supreme Court (STF) decided this Wednesday (15) that the calculation used by the FNDE (National Education Development Fund) to distribute the education salary to states and municipalities is not constitutional.

With the decision, there will be a change in the formula that should cause a loss in the revenues of São Paulo for the education area and benefit the states of the Northeast, responsible for filing the action in the Supreme Court.

In order for the states to plan with the change in revenues, the STF decided, however, that the decision will only be applied from 2024.

The education salary is a social contribution, deducted from companies, which aims to finance programs, projects and actions aimed at public basic education.

The Northeastern states questioned the rules for distributing the social contribution, which had been made based on the number of students enrolled in the public network and the origin of the source of the collection.

For these states, this interpretation conflicted with the Constitution, and only the number of students enrolled should be calculated. Most Supreme Court ministers agreed with the understanding.

“Thus [no cálculo anterior]the more economically developed states, like São Paulo, receive a higher share than the less developed ones, like the states of the Northeast, a region where the value of the collection of this contribution is lower due to the smaller number and lower economic expression of taxpayers”, they argued. the Northeastern states.

In 2020, the state of São Paulo stated that initial forecasts by the Department of Education predicted that, if the understanding was changed, the state would no longer receive about R$ 2.5 billion annually.

The action was presented in 2009, but it only began to be judged by the STF in 2018, and suffered a stoppage until it was resumed this Wednesday.

Ministers Edson Fachin, Rosa Weber, Cármen Lúcia, Luís Roberto Barroso, Gilmar Mendes, Nunes Marques and Marco Aurélio, who has retired, voted in favor of the change.

In his vote, Fachin had pointed out that the old calculation went against the provisions of the Constitution, which “establishes a single distribution criterion, that is, the number of students enrolled in each federative entity, and it cannot be accepted that the law provides for a previous criterion, based on the origin of the revenue source”.

Ministers Alexandre de Moraes, Dias Toffoli, Luiz Fux and Ricardo Lewandowski voted against the measure.