This article analyses the progression of education policy by the Workers' Party (PT) in Brazil from its experience of municipal administration to national government. The first section presents this development, noting its progression from a participatory, social(ist) project to a more reformist, elite-directed model. The second section accounts for the domestic influences that led to a more reformist PT education policy by the 2000s. These include: (1) increasing electoral success, (2) changing membership composition, (3) policy innovations supported by its members and (4) a growing asymmetry in resources (and influence) towards the party leadership and its members. The third section presents the global changes in education thinking that coincided with the PT's entry into national government. It distinguishes between a neo-liberal and neo-conservative "first generation" and a state-oriented "second generation" Washington Consensus, associated with the New Right and the centre-left that emerged across the region after 2000 respectively.