| Education is the foundation of a nation's development a hundred years.National rejuvenation and social progress both depend on education.Compulsory education is the foundation of a nation's education system.At the beginning of the opening-up reform,China promoted the rapid development of compulsory education under the concept of "efficiency first".During 2000 s,the government gradually took the equity as the direction of compulsory education.In recent years,as pointed out in the report of the 19 th national congress of the communist party of China(CPC),the principal contradiction in Chinese society has turned into one between the people's ever-growing needs for a better life and unbalanced and inadequate development.Accordingly,the demand of compulsory education has been transformed into "fair and high-quality" quality education,that is,not only should everyone be able to "study",but also to get access to high-qulity "learn".In fact,this means we need adequate compulsory education(ACE).The definition of ACE is the state where the government provides resources at the appropriate level based on short-term and long-term compulsory education achievement goals,so that all students can meet performance standards.It is a combination of "education achievement standards +financial resource allocation + performance standards".ACE needs not only the support of sufficient financial resources,but also the adjustment of the allocation of financial resources.However,China's current financial resources still more adapts to the traditional equity-oriented education,having the problems such as unclear responsibilities among the allocation subjects,un-functinal policy,and mismatch between the financial supply and demand.This problems lead to inefficient financial resource allocation process and substandard results,which means that ACE can't be achieved properly.In addition,with the slowdown of China's economic growth and the implementation of the policies such as “tax cut and fee reduction”,the national fiscal revenue will be further tightened.Therefore,how to optimize the allocation of financial resources and meet the public's adequacy demand for compulsory education needs urgent research.This article attempts to address the question "How to optimize financial resources allocation to achieve ACE?" The logic of the article is "confirming thestandard of ACE--figuring out how the financial resources allocation affect ACE--optimizing the allocation of financial resources".The article includes 7chapters,of which chapters 4 to 6 are key points.Chapter 1 Introduction,introducing the background,key concepts,content,methods and innovations of this research.Chapter 2 Literature Review,reviewing the existing domestic and abroad research results on the ACE and the allocation of education financial resources.Chapter 3 Theoretical Framework of Adequate Financial Resource Allocation for Compulsory Education.The theoretical framework includes top-bottem three levels,which are "mission-politics-operation".Mission is about the goals of compulsory education financial resource allocation;politics is about government's behaviors in allocation of financial resources;operation is about how the public sector choose a effective way to allocate the financial resource for providing compulsory education.Chapter 4 Government's Mission: Adequacy Standard System of Compulsory Education.Using the big data method to analyze the Chinese policy texts about compulsory education from 2011 to 2019,I confirmed that the compulsory education adequacy standard system consists of three levels: " vision-target-planning".At the same time,I calculated the compulsory education adequacy index of 31 provinces,municipalities and autonomous in China using the data of 2017 as an example.Chapter 5 Governmental Behaviors: Empirical Study on the Impact of of Financial Resource Allocation on ACE.Based on the current situation and problems of the education financial resources allocation,I used Hierarchical Linear Model to verify that the differences and games of governmental behaviors have effect on the ACE.Chapter 6 Operational optimization: Policy Recommendations for the Financial Resources Allocation of ACE.After clarifying the standard of ACE,and empirically analysing the problems and causes of financial resources allocation for ACE,I put forward the corresponding policy recommendations.Chapter 7 Summary and Prospect,summarizing the research conclusions and policy recommendations,and elaborating the directions of further research on this topic.According to research logic,I get some research conclusions through systematic theoretical and empirical analysis:(1)The financial resources allocation for ACE should follow the top-bottom "mission-politics-operation" three-dimensional influence logic,which is based on the public goods attributes of compulsory education and the government function.Mission is the upper level standard and value requirements of the educational financial resources allocation.The nature of the public product of compulsory education determines that the government should take the main responsibility to provide compulsory education by allocating financial resources.The changing external environment requires public sector needs to take the mission of creating public value.From the perspective of China's current development needs,ACE is the due meaning of the government's allocation of financial resources to create public value.In the political level at the median level,due to the different interests of among governments,there are differences governmental behaviors in the allocation of financial resources.Under China's political centralization system and fiscal decentralization system,the central government are willing to use specific funds,which specifies the details about how to use of financial funds,to control local governments to implement the central government's targets.However,the local governments are able to actively integrate central special funds into their own development plan.The mutual game process between control and anti-control will make it difficult for the financial resources allocation to achieve the ACE mission.In the lower operation level,the operation of the grass-roots departments is the final port to achieve the ACE mission.Efficiently achieving the mission requires a clear organizational mission,optimizing production processes and change management systems,prioritizing the allocation of funds to areas most needed to create value.(2)China lacks a clear adequacy standard system for compulsory education.The clearly defined adequacy standard system consists of three levels of vision,target and planning,and several specific indicators.Without the system,there would be unclear responsibility for the allocation of financial resources.In policies,the central government usually represents the country to make commitments about “what kind of babor we need to cultivate(vision)”,“how to cultivate labor(target)”,and “how to allocate the resources(planning)”.These commitments all aim to achieve ACE.The "Vision-Targets-Planning" standard system confirmed by the central government's commitments can comprehensively evaluate the ACE from the results,outputs,andinputs.What's more,the system is systematic,dynamic and operable,fiting with the needs of mearsuring the ACE.(3)There is a problem of "middle collapse" in ACE.That is,the ACE in middle-area provinces are relatively low.In addition,there are obvious differences in the relationship among ACE systemtic levels in the eastern,midland,and western regions.Based on the "Vision-Target-Planning" standard system,the compulsory education adequacy index in 2017 calculated by the sample of 434 counties across the country shows: the levels of ACE in Tianjin,Beijing,Inner Mongolia,Xinjiang are relatively high;on the contrary,the levels of ACE in Jiangxi,Henan,Hainan are relatively low;Tibet,Qinghai,Shanxi have high adequacy indexes at the planning level,but low adequacy indexes at the target level and vision level;Fujian,Chongqing,and Anhui have low adequacy indexes at planning level and the target-level,but high adequacy indexes at vision level.The relationship between the three-level adequacy index presents the different logic for compulsory education development in the eastern,middle and western regions.Especially in the choice of educational equity and efficiency at the vision level.There is heterogeneity in the demand for compulsory education in the eastern region.So the performance is not used as a guide for the quality of education.The situation where improves the educational efficiency by sacrifing the educational equity is common in eastern region.In middle area,students' achievements play a significant role in mearsuring the quality of education.It is necessary to ensure the student's achievements regardless of whether the education is equity or not.The development of education in the western region pays more attention to equity in order to implement the policy intention of central government on education through transfer payments.(4)There exists the logic of "insufficient" in the financial resources allocation for compulsory education in China,which means the orientation of financial resources allocation is wrong.Using Ordinary Least Square(OLS)to estimate the relationship between indexes of ACE and fiscal expenditures in 434 counties,the results show that the counties with higher indexes of ACE at the vision,target,and planning levels have higher financial resources.For example,the counties with higher grades have higher per capita financial subsidies in the eastern and middle regions;the counties withinadequate school facilities have lower per capita fiscal construction expenditures in the western region.In other words,the allocation of educational finance resources does not match the direction of adequate development.(5)When the government allocate the financial resources,province-level government should play a further role in the adequacy of education quality and public funds.What more,The existing allocation of transfer payments has the problem of mismatch between supply and demand,which leads to the lack of efficiency in achieving the goal of ACE.Two-thirds of the differences in the ACE comes from the provincial level,and the differences mainly reflects the impact on public funding and student performance.The inefficiency of allocation caused by transfer payments arises from two aspects.On the one hand,transfer payments can affect the distribution of financial resources among schools and drive more financial resources to small-scale schools.On the other hand,transfer payments can affact the schools use more funds for expenditure related to school construction.(6)The financial resources allocation based on ACE should be managed differently.China has a vast territory,and the level of economic and educational development varies greatly from place to place.Using one approach to guiding the allocation of financial resources for all is not operable.Based on the conclusions of theoretical analysis and empirical analysis,the policy recommendations for optimizing the financial resources allocation are as follows:(1)Define the mission,provinding the direction for financial resources allocation.Clarifying the mission requires defining the authoritative subject to fulfill the mission,ensuring that members of the organization and stakeholders are familiar with the mission,and dynamically adjusting action goals and programs based on the mission.(2)Widen financial resources,ensuring the stainable growth in investment for education.The slowdown of economic growth and the "post-4% era" require re-establish the benchmark for education funding based on the ACE,and activate the incentives for social capital,local governments,and grassroots units to invest in compulsory education in terms of institutions and mechanisms.(3)Allocate resources,adjusting and improving the logic and method of financialresources allocation for ACE.The logic of financial resource allocation should match the current misson of ACE,clarify the regular pattern of school production,and establish an adequacy-oriented budget accountability system.Transfer payments should give full play to the effectiveness of funds,and enable "incentive compatibility" between lower and upper governments by clarifing the relationship among governments.(4)Classified management,enhancing the operability of optimization of the financial resource allocation.The sample counties can be divided into four categories based on the average lines of the adequacy index and the financial expenditure per student.the first sort of counties with low fiscal expenditure and high adequacy should be the standard counties for compulsory education finance.For the second sort of counties with high fiscal expenditure and high adequacy,governments should decentralize school autonomy and decision-making power to meet the public's additional demand for education.For the third sort of counties with low fiscal expenditure and low adequacy,the local government's ability to acquire resources should be improved.Taking Runan County,Henan Province as an example,the adequate financial input gap is: The regular expenditures such as teachers salary and operational funds of elementary and middle schools needs to be increased by 198 million yuan and 78 million yuan each year,and fixed assets such as school facilities expenditure needs to be increased by 29 million yuan and 150 million yuan.The forth sort of counties with high fiscal expenditure and low adequacy should regulate the fiscal expenditure structure and avoid transfer payments to drive financial resources to construction projects that are not related to teaching.The innovations of this research are as follows:(1)The research confirms a clear standard system for ACE.Based on the text of the central government's policy about compulsory education,I sorted out a clear and quantifiable standard system for ACE to provide a reference for the government to fulfill its mission of compulsory education's financial resource allocation.(2)I analyzed the current state of inadequate logic in the financial resources allocation for compulsory education,empirically demonstrated how the allocation tool for education financial transfers affects the path to the fulfill the ACE.Theseconclusions can provide a basis for adjusting the logic of financial resource allocation and improving the allocation method.(3)Based on the sample counties,I recongnized some counties as the benchmark of financial resource allocation,and measured the demands of financial resources in some counties where the compulsory education can't achieve adequacy out of lacking financial resources.These works can provide a decision-making reference for counties in different stages of ACE. |
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