This article aims to discuss the effects of FUNDEF on educational policies in Minas Gerais state municipalities. The analyses were based on interviews of local educational secretaries of 22 municipalities of Minas Gerais State carried out between November and December 2002. The analysis considers several points and hypotheses raised in literature, including a trend for the search of gains in scale and the increase of the number of students and schools, a possible improvement in teachers' wages and skills; teacher qualification efforts; reduction in the use the education budget to other ends, the possible underinvestment in preschool, secondary education, and young adult education due to their exclusion from FUNDEF, and the possible insufficiency of the FUNDEF reference value.
FUNDEF; educational policy; municipalization
