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CHAPTER APPROPRIATION OF AND SHARE IN EDUCATIONAL EXPENDITURE

In the analysis of the educational expenditures in this country, expenditures for private educational establishments should not be overlooked. Especially in secondary and higher education, private education establishments play an important role.

The following tables present the proportion of total educational expenditures spent on private schools, and the proportion of students enrolled in private schools.

In 1935, the proportion of total educational expenditures spent on private schools was 23.1% at the secondary education level and 23.7% at the higher education level.

After World War the proportion of secondary education expenditures spent on private schools decreased considerably. But it gradually increased until 1962 when it amounted to 15.7%. The proportion of higher education costs spent on private institutions reached 46.3% in 1962, almost twice as high as in 1935.

Table 76. Percentage of Private Educational Expenditures and Private School Enrollment

But when the proportion of total higher education expenditure spent on private establishments is compared with that of the total number of students enrolled in private establishments, it is apparent that the latter proportion has been always higher than the former.

Private establishments provide educational services at a far lower per pupil cost and probably of inferior level than the public institutions.

The following tables present both the proportion of total educational expenditures spent on private schools and the proportion of total students enrolled in private schools, in Japan and the United States.

In Japan about 15% of total education expenditures are spent on private schools. The proportion of expenditures spent on private schools in 1961 was 44% at the higher education level, 14% at the secondary education level, and 3% at the elementary education level.

Table 77. Percentages of Private School Expenditure and Private School Enrollment

In the United States the share of private schools in the total education expenditures accounts for 27% in average of all the three levels: elementary secondary, and higher. The share amounts to 44% at the higher education level, 29% at the elementary education level, and 11% at the secondary education level.

Comparison of the above percentages between the two countries indicates that in Japan the proportion of private school expenditures is relatively high at both the secondary and higher education levels, but it is low at the elementary level.

It is to be noted here that in the United States the proportion of private school expenditures is higher than the proportion of students enrolled iu private schools at all levels of education. On the contrary in Japan the proportion of private school expenditures is lower than the proportion of private school enrollments at both the elementary and higher education levels.

It is apparent that the quality of educational services in the United States is superior in private institutions as compared with that in public ones.