Deep Dive
The Scale of Brazil's Early Childhood Crisis
Edson Ferrari, president of the Institute Rui Barbosa's early childhood committee, opens with stark numbers. Brazil has 18 million children aged 0-6, nearly 14 million from vulnerable families. Yet only 39% of children in Goiânia have daycare access against a 2016 target of 50%. Across Goiás state, the figure drops to just 25%. Pre-school coverage reaches 82%, missing the 95% target. Ferrari visited Boa Vista, Roraima's capital, where he saw both a functioning daycare serving indigenous children and, hours later, a juvenile detention facility housing 25 adolescents. Among them, children aged 14-16 convicted of rape, others aged 16-18 in for drug trafficking. The contrast crystallized his mission: invest in early childhood or manage the fallout later.
Why Courts of Accounts Must Rethink Their Role
Ferrari argues courts of accounts have fundamentally misunderstood their job. For decades, they audited only accounting — did municipalities spend the budgeted 25% on education and 12% on health correctly? But they never asked whether those policies worked. He calls this shift a betrayal of constitutional Article 227, which obligates the state, family, and society to care for children. A policy is legitimate, Ferrari says, only if it delivers real results: creches for children, adequate prenatal care for mothers. The current system is illegitimate because it abandons vulnerable families. Courts now must push municipalities to redirect budgets toward early childhood, not just check the math. This requires courts to become activists for structural change, not neutral scorekeepers.
From Advocacy to Implementation: Roraima and Paraíba Models
Ferrari cites two examples of courts catalyzing change. In Roraima, a state of only 15 municipalities plagued by Venezuelan migration and indigenous poverty, counselor Cene Lago began training administrators to budget for early childhood programs they'd never considered. Within months, municipalities that had zero budget lines for childcare began planning. Paraíba's shift was more dramatic: in 2024, all 230 municipalities budgeted 39 million reais for early childhood policies. After the state court began structuring budget planning around early childhood, 2025 allocations jumped to 2 billion reais. Ferrari stresses that most gains came not from new revenue but from reallocation — courts showed that redirecting existing funds toward early childhood was both legal and essential. The Institute Rui Barbosa conducted a national audit visiting 160 municipalities across 23 states and found chaos: education agencies didn't speak with health departments, health didn't coordinate with social services. Fixing this requires organized action at municipal level.
The National Conference and Constitutional Mandate
From August 26-28, Goiânia will host a national conference on early childhood policy evaluation at the Rio Vermelho Theater. Ferrari is inviting policymakers, administrators, and international partners including UNICEF's vice-president and the Catholic Church to discuss how courts can enforce compliance with constitutional family-support obligations. The goal: every Brazilian municipality must create an early childhood plan and embed it in their four-year budget (the Plano Plurianual, or PPA). Currently, only 160 municipalities have such plans. Ferrari emphasizes that this is not optional — Article 227 is binding law. Courts have the audit authority and the moral obligation to hold governments accountable. He frames the conference as a moment to mobilize judges, mayors, city council members, and education secretaries to understand that early childhood investment is not a luxury but a mandate.
The Moral Stakes: From Daycare to Prison Cells
Ferrari concludes with a story that illustrates the stakes. In the United States, a 14-year-old was arrested for stealing a package of crackers to feed herself and her sick mother. At a custody hearing, the judge learned the girl had lost her job caring for her mother and had no safety net. Rather than punishing the child, the judge fined everyone in the courtroom 10 dollars — including himself — arguing that society bears collective responsibility for feeding hungry children. Ferrari says this is the principle underlying Brazil's constitution: the state and society must care for vulnerable children as if they were our own. He notes he recently remarried and has a young child, which has deepened his conviction that early childhood support is foundational to everything else. If Brazil cares about reducing crime, improving health, building capable citizens, it must invest now, in the first six years.