Abstract
We evaluate states’ capacity to deliver public education in Latin America. Education is essential for developing human capabilities and pursuing one’s best, chosen life. We focus on Brazil, where a right to an education is enshrined in the constitution. Brazil and other countries in the region have fallen short of achieving universal public education, and the quality of that education is low, on average, especially in poorer, rural areas. Yet, Brazil and many other countries also feature islands of educational excellence, where capacity is high and performance is strong. Thus, the wide variation in educational capacity begs an explanation. We build an explanation for national and local education capacity in two ways. First, we describe the historical evolution of education policy, spending, and capacity at the national level in Brazil and around the region. We then complement this analysis by evaluating common hypotheses surrounding variation in education capacity at the municipal level. The chapter advances knowledge surrounding state capacity in education by providing novel descriptive and explanatory evidence at multiple levels of government and, thus, lessons that are applicable to multiple contexts.