The Geography of Opportunity: Social Segregation and Its Effects on Public Education in the Metropolitan Region of Campinas, Brazil

Jose Marcos Pinto da Cunha, Universidade Estadual de Campinas
Alberto A.E. Jakob, Universidade Estadual de Campinas
Maren Andrea Jimenez, University of Texas at Austin

Rapid urbanization in Latin America has created mega-cities characterized by income inequality, poor housing conditions and reduced access to public services. In recent years decreasing urban primacy in Latin America has led to high growth rates within smaller urban agglomerations. While research has documented the extent of social segregation in the mega-cities of Latin America, less attention has been given to that of its secondary cities, and little research has been done on the relationship between poverty, segregation and access to public services in secondary cities. Using data from the national census, 2003 school census, and 2000 SARESP scores, we demonstrate that in Campinas concentrated areas of low socioeconomic status lack public school infrastructure and have worse educational achievement among its students. While measures of school quality are not singly explained by the characteristics of the areas in which they are located, our results clearly show a strong relationship between the two.