Education priority policies: Issues regarding the treatment of poorness as social diversity

Massification of education in Latin America, or democratization of access, has meant the entrance of social groups previously excluded, entailing not only the need to rethink pedagogical matters, but also a new way of dealing with poorness through school (known as “socio-educational policies”). Compensatory programs, or corrective justice, developed during the 1990’s seeking to work specifically with the most vulnerable groups in their local contexts, are now strongly criticized for not promoting real equality but stigmatizing populations. The need to “universalize” educational policies emerges nowadays as an imperative, tough the conditions to put it into practice, mainly in terms of resource availability in different contexts, leads to regional inequality. This paper presents the first conclusions of our PhD theses concerning the evolution of education compensatory programs in Argentina as a political way of making the school responsible for dealing with poorness and social exclusion.