Brazil’s New Education Minister is an Economist, Not an Educator

By Lise Alves, Senior Contributing Reporter

SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL – The nomination of Abraham Weintraub as Brazil’s new Education Ministry (MEC) was a disappointment to many who had hoped President Jair Bolsonaro would appoint someone well-known in the sector. Weintraub is an economist with dozens of years working in the financial sector and little experience in education.

“Again, we will have a minister who does not understand education, especially public basic education. The tendency is for him to want to combine a cultural war with the privatization of education,” said general coordinator of the National Campaign for the Right to Education (CNDE) Daniel Cara.

Before being named as Education Minister, Weintraub was serving as the Chief of Staff’s executive secretary. The new minister was also a professor at the Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP) and a member of the BM&F Bovespa Trading Committee (São Paulo’s Stock Exchange).

In 2016, he coordinated the presentation of an alternative social security reform proposal formulated by UNIFESP professors.

“His appointment is a concern because he is a person more linked to the financial market and social security than to education. Being a teacher does not mean that you are someone from the area. So, what worries us is that we do not have someone in MEC who is linked to education, someone who is knowledgeable about the problems of Brazilian education,” read the statement issued by the National Movement in Defense of High School.

Weintraub, known for his anti-communist stance and his speeches against Marxist culture at universities will replace Ricardo Vélez Rodriguez, who during his almost three months in office faced several crises within the Education Ministry.