Does greater public spending on education improve the quality of teaching?

Responsible researcher: Viviane Pires Ribeiro

Article title: QUALITY OF MUNICIPAL PUBLIC EXPENDITURE ON ELEMENTARY EDUCATION IN BRAZIL

Authors of the article: Maria Dolores Montoya Diaz

Location of intervention: Brazil

Sample size: 12,969 municipal schools

Big theme: Education

Type of Intervention: evaluation of policies to increase resources for education

Variable of Main Interest: Public spending on education

Evaluation method: Experimental Evaluation (RCT)

Assessment Context

The report released in the United States in 1966, entitled Equality of Educational Opportunity , is of great relevance to the debate regarding the effectiveness of resources applied in educational institutions. According to Diaz (2012), the results of this study indicated that the most important explanatory factors for students' academic performance were the family, followed by peers and relegating an insignificant role to the school. Subsequently, two names stood out in the literature on this topic, Erik A. Hanushek and Alan B. Krueger. The first defends the position that “more money doesn't make a difference” in school performance and the second defends some of the policies to increase resources for schools.

Diaz (2012) highlights that the arrival of this discussion in Brazil is recent. On the one hand, the results obtained by Brazilian students in an international assessment of school performance raise the “easy” argument that these result from low investments in education. On the other hand, it is possible to verify a growing discontent among the population with the upward trend in the Brazilian tax burden. Along these lines, according to the author, it is possible to focus on statistics on expenditure, produced by the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), which would lead to the opposite conclusion, that expenditure on education in the country is not small. In other words, among the group of countries that participated in PISA ( Program for International Student Assessment ) in 2003, Brazil is among those that, proportionally in relation to Gross Domestic Product, was one of those that spent the most on education. In this context, Diaz (2012) seeks to discuss the quality of municipal spending per elementary school student in Brazilian municipal schools.

Intervention Details

The databases used by the author were: 2005 School Census, Prova Brasil (mathematics assessment applied to fourth grade elementary school students) and FINBRA (Finanças do Brasil). Data on the IDEB (Basic Education Development Index) of each of the municipal schools regarding the performance of 4th grade students were also obtained from the INEP website (National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira). Totaling 12,969 municipal schools, located in 2,910 Brazilian municipalities.

The average IDEB value for the initial grades of the schools analyzed was 3.76, reaching a maximum value of 7.3. Regarding the profile of the schools, the results indicated that approximately 85% had a water filtration system to be consumed by students, less than half had a library and a small proportion had a reading room (23%) and/or computer laboratory ( 30%). When it comes to municipal public expenditure, the average percentage of expenditure on education in relation to total expenditure was 27.06% and the average percentage of expenditure on primary education over expenditure on education was 78.44%.

Methodology Details

Diaz (2012 adopts multilevel models, with the final specification of a hierarchical model with two levels (schools and municipalities) and a random intercept. According to the author, these models allow for the simultaneous investigation of individual effects and contextual effects, as well as accommodating intragroup correlation and model complex variance structures.

Results

Diaz (2012) sought to verify whether the variables related to public spending are statistically significant and with positive signs, controlling for other aspects that would theoretically also affect school performance and that represent the student's profile, characteristics of the teaching staff and the school and characteristics of the municipality. Thus, two distinct results were observed in relation to expenditure measures: a positive sign for the variable municipal expenditure per student, despite its very small size, indicating that the greater the municipal expenditure per student, the higher the expected IDEB value, and signs negative both for the percentage of expenditure on education in relation to total municipal expenditure and for the percentage of expenditure on primary education in relation to expenditure on education.

The results found seem to indicate the existence of a small positive impact of municipal spending per student. However, the author emphasizes that when general expenses are evaluated, reflected in the percentage variables analyzed, it appears that these variables reflect political options that are not necessarily accompanied by changes in aspects that would directly affect the conditions or factors that are effectively responsible. for improving the quality of municipal public education. Therefore, the results seem to indicate that simple increases in education spending do not necessarily cause an improvement in the quality of education, as measured by IDEB.

Public Policy Lessons

Does greater public spending on education improve the quality of teaching? The results found by Diaz (2012) indicate that the simple percentage increase in municipal spending on education or even the percentage of spending on elementary education in relation to municipal spending on education does not automatically guarantee an improvement in the quality of education. In other words, greater spending is not necessarily accompanied by changes in aspects that directly affect the conditions or factors that are effectively responsible for improving the quality of municipal public education. Therefore, before increasing expenses, it is necessary to identify with due precision which aspects must be changed, and only then, evaluate which resources would be needed to promote the necessary transformations. Results evaluations must be carried out constantly to check whether objectives are being achieved.

Diaz (2012) highlights that it is interesting to know how problems in the educational system are dealt with in other countries. Citing the article published in the newspaper O Estado de São Paulo on April 29, 2007, in which Norman Gall reports his observations on the reforms implemented in the New York educational system, with the aim of improving school performance in the city. Thus, summarizing the reforms into six topics: more authority for principals - and more accountability, increasing supervision in the classroom and providing highly trained teachers, continuous process of applying exams and evaluation, adopting measures to combat violence, indiscipline and disorder in schools, encouraging parental involvement and encouraging greater private sector engagement in public education.

In short, the process of improving educational quality is slow and difficult, because it affects interests and requires changes in ingrained habits and practices. However, to find good results it is necessary to identify the aspects to be changed and define the efficient use of these resources, even before allocating more financial resources to institutions or systems with structural problems.

References

DIAZ, Maria Dolores Montoya. Quality of municipal public spending on elementary education in Brazil. Brazilian Journal of Political Economy, v. 32, no. 1, p. 128-141, 2012.