Education in States and Nations: 1991
(ESN) Indicator 34:
Distribution of current public expenditure on
education
The distribution of current public expenditure between the
primary through
secondary level and the higher education level reflects national
education
goals and strategies regarding the priority given to each
education level. It
is also influenced by the number of students enrolled at each
level and by the
age distribution of the population. It is important to note that
this
indicator does not give a complete picture of the distribution of
public
resources between the two levels, since some countries did not
classify the
distribution of portions of their expenditure, reporting them,
instead, as "undistributed."
- Among the six G-7 countries with comparative data for 1991,
Japan,
France, and Italy allocated a higher percentage of their
current
public education expenditure at the primary through
secondary level
than did the United States, which distributed 74.4 percent
to that
level of education. Canada and West Germany spent a lower
percentage
than did the United States at the primary through secondary
level.
- The proportion of current public education spending
allocated to
higher education in the United States was just above 25
percent.
Among the six G-7 countries included here, Canada had a
higher
proportion - 34 percent - and so, perhaps, did West
Germany, if their "undistributed" expenditures were allocated across levels.
- Whereas the higher education proportion of public education
spending
for as many as 7 of the other 13 countries represented here
was below
20 percent, only 6 of the U.S. states had proportions that
low.
Conversely, whereas 11 U.S. states allocated 30 percent or
more of
current public education spending to higher education, only
3
countries - the Netherlands, Australia, and Canada - allocated
proportions that high.
Notes on interpretation:
The duration, the number of years of school comprised by a school
level, can
vary from country to country and from state to state. Some
countries, for
example, have an extra year or two of secondary school for some
of their
students. The longer the duration of a school level, the larger
a share of
educational expenditure one would expect at that level.
This indicator should not be interpreted as a measure of the
resources devoted
to education, but rather as an indicator of the distribution of
those
resources between education levels.
Table 33b
Figure 34