论我国教育支出的现状与改革

On the Current Situation and Reforms of Chinese Educational Expenditure

在经济发展过程中,作为人力资本重要基础的教育越来越显得重要,这已成为当今社会的共识.但是,我国目前教育支出的现状无论是从总量上还是从结构上,无论是就满足市场经济发展需要,还是与其他国家的一般水平相比较,均显得不尽如人意.如何调整教育支出的政策,为迎接知识经济的挑战积聚足够的人力资本,已成为我国教育改革与发展的一项重要议题.

It is common knowledge of the society that, as the essential basis of manpower capital, education is becoming more and more significant in economic development. However, either on the aspect of the total or structure, either on the purpose of meeting the demand of mar-ket economy development or when compared with the average level of other countries, the current situation of Chinese educational expenditure all appears undesirable. How to adjust the policy of educational expenditure has become the important subject under discussion in the reforms and development of Chinese education.The essay consists of two parts. In the first part, the author mainly enumerates the cur-rent situation of Chinese educational expenditure and states that, although the financial edu-cational expenditure increase annually in the beginning sixteen years of the reform and open-ing, the percentage it made up of GDP was decreasing. For instance, in 1995 it dropped by 0.48% when compared with 1980, and it was 2.01% lower than the average level of 4. 1 % of developing countries. In addition, the structure of financial educational investment is still unreasonable. The proportion of investment on higher education is higher not only than common developing countries but also than some developed countries; whereas, the propor-tion of investment on medium and elementary education is lower than many other countries. Apart from that, higher education has the trouble of low benefits. Although the average edu-cational expenditure per student for the higher, medium, and elementary education de-creased to 1:2.5:14.46 in 1995, it was still higher than the international universal stan-dard of 1:2.5:9.2.In the second part, as far as the above issues are concerned, the author puts forward some suggestions on how to adjust the policy of educational expenditure. Those include: to strengthen legislation and supervising of the educational cause, to better the system of bud-get management, to strengthen the financial support of education, to optimize the structure of government' s investment on education, and to mobilize non - governmental sectors to open more avenues to school-running.