This text describes the course of Brazilian Education as it appears in the constitutional texts. It seeks to show some forward and backward movements in the fi eld of education in the Brazilian constitutions and the laws derived from them, from the constitutional text of 1824 through to the most recent one, in 1988. It shows that the right to education, as a universal right, is fairly recent in our country. The declaration of social rights, with the State as the provider of those rights, is marked by constitutional changes, modeled by the groups in power. Thus, it is observed that some legal texts attribute to the State the responsibility of compulsory education, along with the family role, while, in other texts, many of the State obligations are omitted. Finally, it highlights the fact that the present Federal Constitution is marked by many advances, compared to the previous Constitutions.