State Constitutional Law and Education: the contribution of federalism to the expansion of the fundamental right to free higher education

Abstract

This article analyzes the constitutional law of the federal states in Brazil, from a perspective of subnational constitutionalism. This research seeks to demonstrate the potential of state constitutions for the realization of free higher education, highlighting the role of university municipal authorities in the process of internalizing free higher education in rural areas. In the first topic, free public education is analyzed as part of fundamental rights; then, some current ideas on subnational constitutionalism are presented, with the intention of reflecting on the spaces of autonomy and the capacity for innovation of the federative units with regard to fundamental rights; and, in the third, the focus is on the Constitution of the State of Pernambuco and its possible advances regarding the free public higher education in the state, confronting the provisions of the constitution with the reality of public higher education, demonstrating the (in)effectiveness of any subnational protection of this fundamental right.