This book explores Conditional Cash Transfers programs within the context of education policy
over the past several decades. Conditional Cash Transfer programs (CCTs) provide cash to poor
families upon the fulfillment of conditions related to the education and health of their
children. Even though CCTs aim to improve educational attainment it is not clear whether
Departments or Ministries of Education have internalized CCTs into their own sets of policies
and whether that has had an impact on the quality of education being offered to low income
students. Equally intriguing is the question of how conditional cash transfer programs have
been politically sustained in so many countries some of them having existed for over ten
years. In order to explore that this book will build upon a comparative study of three
programs across the Americas: Opportunity NYC Subsidios Condicionados a la Asistencia Escolar
(Bogota Colombia) and Bolsa Famila (Brazil). The book presents a detailed and non-official
account on the NYC and Bogota programs and will analyze CCTs from both a political and
education policy perspective.
