Fiscal imbalance in education in Poland - selected problems

Abstract

As a result of decentralization, educational tasks in Poland were almost entirely transferred to local government units (LGUs). Thus, the aim of the article is to analyse the level of imbalance of LGUs’ budgets in the field of education in the context of the adequacy principle and to present the role of transfers from the state budget in limiting vertical and horizontal fiscal imbalance in this field. The study covered data from budget reports Rb-27S and Rb-28S for the years 2013-2017 for all LGUs and their groups (communes, cities with county rights, counties, voivodeships). The results obtained indicate a differentiated level of fiscal imbalance in education for groups of LGUs and an increase in the scale of the phenomenon in all groups in 2017 in connection with the reform of the school system.