The political thesis of the universalization of basic education is discussed on the basis of a political pamphlet by Kant and the legal hermeneutics proposed by Bobbio for the doctrine of Human Rights. Thus, the article presents the Enlightenment’s political-educational thesis that citizenship is the condition for an individual to have rights. It briefl y examines the critique of individualism in the modern view of citizenship and of the state’s role in basic education. With this theoretical basis, the article analyzes the universalization of basic education proposed in the Brazilian educational legislation. The confrontation between theory and legislation makes it possible to propose a political, theoretical and practical defi nition of universalization, establishing criteria to examine the universalization of basic education in the municipality of Canoas/RS and showing the distance between that political thesis and the performance of the educational systems