Bus accessibility to public education in Belo Horizonte: a qualitative approach

Abstract

Although good public education is a guaranteed right in the Brazilian Federal Constitution, the access to this service isn’t always even. Regarding this issue, promoting actions that aims improve the quality of education, and discussing problems related to accessibility to schools, as well, becomes a lynchpin in the discussion about reducing socioeconomic inequalities, especially in the urban context. Nevertheless, this paper aims to investigate, using spatial statistics and geoprocessing technics, the relationships between the quality of public schools’ chain in Belo Horizonte, the population’s socio-spatial patterns and the accessibility to these schools using public transportation, addressing whether the spatial distribution of schools promotes equal access to a quality education system.