(II) Diversification of investment methods of education funds Since the 1990s, China has clearly put forward an education index that basically adapts to the national conditions and education reform and development, that is, the proportion of national financial education funds to the gross national product reaches 4%, thus ensuring the main channel of national financial education funds investment to some extent. At the same time, in order to further alleviate the shortage of education funds in China caused by state financial investment, China has gradually realized the transformation from simple government investment in the past to diversified investment by the state, society, foreign businessmen, schools, collectives and individuals, so that the proportion of state financial education expenditure in total education expenditure has decreased year by year, while the proportion of non-financial education expenditure in total education expenditure has obviously increased.
(3) The education fund management system has been gradually established and improved.
In order to fully understand the supply and demand of education funds at all levels, supervise the investment of governments at all levels in education, standardize and strengthen the management of school fees, rationally use limited school resources, and improve the efficiency of the use of education funds. Our government and its education authorities at all levels have successively formulated a series of management measures and regulations. And actively explore the funding mechanism of colleges and universities, strengthen the management of special funds for education and school financial management, and have received positive results. (A) the total investment in education funds is insufficient
Although China has increased its investment in education funds, the total scale of education funds has shown considerable growth, but in terms of relative number and average, China's investment in education has been declining year by year.
1, in relative terms. According to the international indicators to measure the scale of education investment-the proportion of education investment in GNP and the proportion of education investment in total fiscal expenditure, the proportion of education investment in GNP in China decreased from 2.77% during the Sixth Five-Year Plan period to 1.95% during the Eighth Five-Year Plan period, while the average low-income countries in the world were 5.2% and 3.6% respectively. 2. From an average point of view. In recent years, although the country has greatly increased the expenditure of education funds, the number of students and teaching staff has increased even more, resulting in the proportion of education funds in the per capita GNP budget of only 1 1.28%, far below the average level of developing countries 1992, not to mention the average level of more than 20% in developed countries.
(2) The structure of education expenditure is unbalanced. Education expenditure in most countries in the world generally presents a pagoda structure, that is, when allocating education funds, priority should be given to meeting the capital needs of primary and secondary education development, and on this basis, investment in higher education should be increased. However, at present, China has invested a lot of limited education funds in the field of higher education, which makes the proportion of higher education investment in China higher, not only higher than that in developing countries, but also higher than that in developed countries, resulting in dislocation of education funds and weak basic education, thus affecting the overall improvement of national quality to a certain extent; At the same time, this unbalanced educational expenditure structure is also extremely incompatible with the development scale and objectives of various educational undertakings, which seriously hinders the development of education in China.
(3) inefficient use of education funds In China, not only is the total amount of education funds insufficient, but there is also a very serious waste phenomenon, mainly in the following aspects.
1, the school-run social phenomenon is widespread, which squeezes out the limited education funds of the school. There is a common phenomenon that schools run society in all kinds of schools in China, especially colleges and universities, which generally have their own affiliated hospitals, kindergartens, primary schools, junior high schools and even high schools. This phenomenon that schools run the society has caused a large proportion of school logistics personnel in our country, and the logistics expenditure accounts for a large part of the national education funds, which makes the already insufficient education funds even more stretched. According to statistics, during the period of 1998, the proportion of college logistics personnel in China was about 60%. In Japan, this ratio is only 22%.
2. A large number of educational facilities are idle and the utilization rate is low. A few years ago, under the call of the state to vigorously develop basic education, local governments at all levels set off a climax of the reconstruction and expansion of primary and secondary school buildings. However, with the decrease of the number of school-age children, many newly-built new school buildings have become furnishings, resulting in a waste of the already limited rural education funding resources; There is another problem of waste in colleges and universities. For example, in addition to the school library, all colleges and departments have their own reference rooms, which are set at different levels, resulting in a large number of books being purchased repeatedly and the utilization rate is very low.
(d) It is difficult to implement policies and regulations to raise funds for education.
Although the state has promulgated a series of laws and regulations on increasing investment in education, there are many difficulties in practice. For example, it is clearly stipulated in the Education Law that by the end of the 20th century, the proportion of national financial education funds to the gross national product should reach the goal of 4%, but so far, the actual investment in education in 2003 is far from reaching the goal of 4%, only less than 3%. Another example is the "three growth" requirement of education funds proposed by the Education Law, but some provinces failed to meet the requirements for several years due to economic factors, subjective factors and management factors. This phenomenon of non-compliance with laws and lax enforcement has seriously affected the collection and use of education funds in China. (Increase the total amount of education funds in a multi-pronged way) On the premise of increasing the state financial input, various measures are taken to encourage social forces to actively participate in the investment of education funds, thus increasing the total amount of education funds.
The state finance should gradually increase the proportion of investment in education funds in accordance with the requirements of the education law. Now all countries in the world put education in a very important position. Since 1990s, the growth rate of public education funds in all countries has been higher than that of GNP, and the proportion of public education funds in GNP has gradually increased. Compared with 1990 in 1993, the proportion of world public education funds in GNP increased from 4.9% to 5. 1%. China's central government should establish an education fund-raising system based on financial allocation and supplemented by other channels, gradually increase investment in education, and ensure a stable source of education funds for public schools. Ensure the "three growth" stipulated in the Education Law, that is, "the growth of educational financial allocation of people's governments at all levels should be higher than the growth of recurrent financial income, and the education funds will increase gradually according to the average number of students in school, so as to ensure the gradual increase of teachers' salaries and students' per capita public funds".
(2) Actively expand other financing channels.
Actively expand other financing channels. Given the relatively limited financial resources in China today, it is obviously not enough to rely solely on the financial resources of the state to substantially increase the investment in education. We must also actively explore other financing channels, including donations and gifts or in-kind donations from individuals and collective enterprises to educational institutions at all levels.
(1) Encourage schools to generate income. Encourage schools to make full use of the existing advantages of running schools under the premise of completing the national compulsory education and scientific research tasks, vigorously offer all kinds of adult education and independent vocational training, and increase school education income.
(2) extensively absorb social funds and take the road of running schools jointly by schools and enterprises. The state can adopt a series of preferential policies such as exemption from enterprise income tax and personal income tax, encourage and support enterprises, institutions, scientific research institutions, individuals and institutions of higher learning to jointly run schools, and establish private universities, private universities and vocational schools to solve the problem of relatively insufficient education funds in China to a certain extent.
(3) Strengthen the collection of additional education fees in urban and rural areas. Surcharge for urban and rural education is a tax to develop basic education and expand local education funds. In order to ensure that the surcharge for urban and rural education is in place in full, it is necessary to levy it directly, strictly implement the two lines of revenue and expenditure, and coordinate the collection, management and use to avoid the phenomenon of missing collection, payment and misappropriation. Those who cannot complete the collection task on time should be deducted from the finance and directly transferred to the special account for extra-budgetary funds.
(4) issue educational lottery tickets. Considering the background of insufficient financial resources for education and great financial pressure, and the great potential of China's lottery market. China can learn from the experience of foreign developed countries in raising education funds through education lottery, issue special education lottery and raise and establish special education investment funds.
3. Adjust the education burden structure and share the public education funds reasonably. The economic development in different parts of China is unbalanced, and the development of compulsory education in economically underdeveloped areas, especially in old, underdeveloped, marginal and poor areas, is seriously restricted by the local economic and financial level, resulting in insufficient education funds. In order to solve this problem, the state should strengthen the implementation of transfer payment of education funds in economically backward areas, balance local education financial expenditure, narrow the obvious gap in education investment levels at all levels, and ensure the real implementation of the compulsory education system.
(C) scientifically and reasonably adjust the distribution structure of education funds
1, giving priority to the development of primary and secondary education. Basic education is the foundation of education. According to the historical experience of developing education abroad, strengthening basic education is of great significance to the development of national economy. Generally speaking, the allocation of education funds is in line with the level of national economic and educational development. Countries with a low level of economic and educational development should focus on developing compulsory education (generally referring to the junior high school stage of primary education and secondary education), and gradually turn to developing secondary and higher education with economic development. At present, as China's economic development is in the primary stage, the investment in education will be very limited. The state should focus this limited education fund on compulsory education, increase the proportion of compulsory education in the total education fund and the per capita education fund level, so as to achieve the goal of popularizing basic education and compulsory education, consolidate the achievements of compulsory education, and then provide preconditions for the later development of secondary education and higher education.
2. Reasonably arrange the structural proportion of various disciplines in higher education. The discipline structure reflects a country's economic and social development, division of labor and industrial structure. , reflecting the social requirements for the types, specifications, knowledge, ability and quality of talents. With China's entry into WTO, the pace of industrial structure adjustment has accelerated, which puts forward new requirements for the construction of disciplines and specialties in colleges and universities. Therefore, colleges and universities should, according to their own actual situation and the needs of social and economic development, invest their limited educational funds in the disciplines and majors that give priority to development, so that the trained students can better meet the needs of society and improve the efficiency of running schools.
(D) improve the efficiency of the use of limited education funds
1, promote the socialization reform of school logistics as soon as possible. Because in the process of promoting the socialization of school logistics, we must consider social endurance. Therefore, in order to promote this work smoothly, the state can allocate some support funds to start the industrialization of university logistics, and when conditions are ripe, take a series of preferential tax measures such as reducing or exempting income tax and part of business tax to promote the socialization of university logistics, and finally realize the complete separation of university logistics.
2. Rational allocation of educational resources to reduce the waste of limited educational resources. First, rationally plan and lay out the structure and scale of all kinds of educational schools at all levels to reduce the waste of teaching resources caused by improper structure and scale; Secondly, the school's internal teaching facilities should be planned and configured in a unified way, changing the current situation of repeated setting and purchase by department and level, and improving the efficiency of use; The third is to arrange teachers' work reasonably, appropriately increase teachers' weekly class hours, reduce redundant staff and reduce the teacher-student ratio.