CHAPTER 15 - State Control and Local Financing of Schools in China

Abstract

This chapter discusses state control and local financing of schools in China. Whereas the earlier schools were guided by Communist Party (CCP) cadres but managed and financed at the local level, contemporary minban xuexiao are funded at the local level but controlled and guided by provincial and central education experts. This evolution reflects tensions in the Chinese policy between centralization and decentralization; it simultaneously exhibits the growing unease of the Chinese leadership with popular participation in the management of social institutions and with populist solutions to the problem of educational development. This chapter discusses the evolution of people-managed schools as a reflection of the CCP's incremental move away both from decentralized decision making to centralized state and Party control, and from populist education to regular education. These policy shifts uncover the PRC's negation of experiments that have been seen as models for development in poor societies. Some scholars maintain that decentralization can be a viable strategy when there is agreement between central authorities and local citizens over goals and structures.