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CHAPTER 4. MEASURES OF NATIONAL EFFORTAND DISTRIBUTION OF TIRE EDUCATIONALINVESTMENT
3. Sources of Governmental Support of Public Education
(1) International Comparison


Total governmental support of public education represents, in each country, the national investment in public education. The relative percentages of total governmental support that are provided from national sources are indicative of the extent to which the national governments, or the people represented thereby, desire to provide a minimum national level of public education or to exercise control over the system of public education.

Table 34-a. Percentages of Total Governmental Support of Pablic Education Contributed by National(1) and Local Governmental Agencies

Table 34-a shows, for 1960, the percentage of total governmental support contributed by national and constituent state governmental agencies and by local (municipal, county, etc.) governmental agencies, in Japan and a selected group of countries.

Four of the eighteen countries listed in the table, including the U.S.S.R., Thailand , Burma and Chile, operate school system under the direct jurisdiction of the national government which provides 100 per cent of the public funds for public school support. Another three of the countries, Korea, Brazil and Italy, approximate total support and control of public education, providing between 82 per cent and 92 per cent of all public school support from national sources.

In only five of these 18 countries is more than one-half of the total public support of public education provided by the local governmental agencies. These five countries include Japan, Canada, the U.S.A., Norway and China (Taiwan).

Six of the 18 countries are federations of states, in which the individual states contribute to the support of the public schools located therein. As shown in Table 34-b, only one of these 6 countries, Brazil, contributes a major share of the total governmental support of public education from national sources. In Canada and the U.S.A., local governmental agencies provide more than one-half of the governmental support of the public schools.

Table 34-b. Percentages of Total Governmental Support of Education Contributed by National, State and Local Governmental Agencies in Countries Constituting Federations of States

In the other four federations of states, the individual constituent states provide between 54 per cent and 63 per cent of all governmental support of public education.

The pattern of the relative shares of governmental support of public education borne by the national and local governmental agencies apparently is largely dependent upon the administrative system of the country. In countries with a centralized administrative systems, educational expenses in most cases are borne by the national or federal government, and in those with a decentralized administrative system, the expenses are borne to a larger extent by the local public bodies. The United Kingdom, Denmark and Sweden represent exceptions to the above, being countries with long-established democratically decentralized governmental organization, but with the highest share in educational expenses by the national government.

Increasing national concern over the maintenance of minimum national standards of education, coupled with more recent concern to provide a high level of national leadership in international scientific, technological and Economic competition, has resulted in increases in the relative support of public education provided from centralized governmental sources. This is illustrated by the trends shown in Tables 35 and 36 for the United Kingdom and the U.S.A.

Table 35. Trend in Percentage of Total Governmental Support of Public Education Provided from Central and Local Sources in the United Kingdom (England and Wales), 1910-1956

Table 36. Trend inn Percentage of Total Governmental Support of Public Education Provided from Federal, State and Local Sources in the U.S.A., 1929-1957

In the United Kingdom (England and Wales), nearly 70 per cent of all governmental support of tax-supported schools is borne bar the national government. In recent years national support of public education has been provided in the form of subsidies for general government without specification of amounts intended for education. This makes it difficult to estimate the actual national contribution to education. However, it is believed that the percentage of national support has increased, evidencing growing national concern to raise the national standard of education.

In the U.S.A., education is primarily the responsibility of the individual state and local governments. Nevertheless, the share of governmental support of education borne bar the federal government has continuously increased through special grants, usually accompanied by matching grants from the recipient states. Under the provisions of the National Defense Education Act of 1958, the federal expenditure for elementary and secondary education in the form of grants have been greatly increased in recent years. For this reason, the ratio of educational expenses borne by the federal government has strikingly increased year after year since 1958. If the Federal Aid Bill for education which was submitted to the U.S. Congress in 1962, is passed, it is expected that the federal share in educational expenses will increase materially.


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