Tabata Amaral, the young Federal Deputy from São Paulo elected in October 2018 with 264,450 votes—the sixth highest vote count among the state’s federal representatives—gave her first speech to Congress this week. Just over five minutes, the speech went viral, along with her main platform: education. 

In a video that has more than 113,000 views on YouTube, Tabata described her own journey—a public school student from the periphery of São Paulo who managed to earn a scholarship at Harvard University, and then at age 25 ran a successful campaign for federal office—underscoring the capacity of quality education to transform lives. Google data indicates that following her speech, general interest in Tabata’s name spiked 2,600 percent.

Tabata urged government representatives to work together in a serious manner, forgoing partisan politics, to improve access and quality in public education in Brazil. She called attention to basic but unresolved issues: literacy rates, lack of resources, and poor training and support for educators, especially in marginalized communities. She also emphasized the need to discuss and reform the Fund for Maintenance and Development of Basic Education (Fundeb). 

Image by Alexandre Amarante via Instagram #equipetabata