Breves considerações sobre o orçamento participativo escolar: experiências no município de Cascais (Portugal)

Abstract

The research presents a bibliographic review and a case study. The choice of the municipality of Cascais to report on the experiences with the participatory school budget was due to the fact that the local government has a consolidated dynamic of democratic and participatory management, especially acting with actions in public schools. The Cascais City Council offers young students the opportunity to suggest projects and also to participate in choosing the winning projects to be implemented with municipal resources. The Cascais Youth Participatory Budget is a mega-project that seeks to democratically decide what to do with a portion of the municipal budget, through the selection of projects designed and voted on by the students themselves. In the 2023-24 Cascais Participatory Budget notice, 459 proposals were submitted, 158 of which were approved, all related to the education sector. The projects include actions such as school renovation, improvement of auditoriums, acquisition of new computers and improvement of internet networks, among several others that seek to make the education sector accessible, fair and of good quality. In the municipality of Cascais, we can see that there are several consolidated experiences regarding participatory budgeting in education, which is practically a very effective model of citizen participation.