Supplying and Financing Education: Options and Trends under Growing Fiscal Restraints

Research currently demonstrates that the supply of schooling in both developed and developing countries continues to be, on average, seriously inefficient. The problem is now accentuated by widespread fiscal constraints caused especially by government deficits. The pervasiveness of the inefficiency is usually demonstrated with figures showing growing public expenditure on schooling per head at a time when student achievement is stagnant or even in decline. This phenomenon will be taken as a point of departure in this paper, which will subsequently concentrate on trends and innovations in the finance of education that attempt to combat the inefficiencies.