Processo de privatização e de capitalização da oferta do itinerário de formação técnica e profissional do novo ensino médio na rede estadual paulista

This article analyzes the process of privatization and capitalization of the provision of the Technical and Professional Training Pathway within Brazil’s New Upper Secondary Education reform, taking Law No. 13,415/2017 as its reference framework. It examines the meanings assumed by the privatization of education in articulation with the contemporary process of financialization, under the hegemony of fictitious and speculative capital. In the Brazilian context, the expansion and regulation of public–private partnerships intensified from the 1990s onward, in connection with state reform guided by the principles of New Public Management. Methodologically, the study combines documentary analysis of educational legislation and regulatory frameworks governing upper secondary education with the analysis of data from the Novotec Program, implemented by the Government of the State of São Paulo. The findings indicate that the upper secondary education counter-reform, particularly regarding the Technical and Professional Training Pathway, expanded opportunities for private contracting by introducing flexible arrangements for fulfilling curricular workload requirements and certification processes. The analysis of the program reveals the central role of private companies and institutions in delivering courses within public secondary schools, as well as the predominance of specific technological fields aligned with the new morphology of work and the ongoing process of deindustrialization in the country. The study concludes that the participation of publicly traded private companies in the program expresses a dynamic of privatization and capitalization associated with the cost reduction of course provision, the precarization of teachers’ work and students' education.