Abstract
Equal compulsory education is an important way to realize social and spatial equality, while the uneven allocation of educational resources in different regions and groups results in inequality of opportunity and solidification of social strata. Traditional research conducted on the basis of fixed search range ignores the special institutional background of Chinese school district system. In this paper, an improved Gaussian two‐step floating catchment area model is developed taking into consideration the school district system, while the bivariate local spatial analysis method and geographically weighted regression model are employed to study the social and spatial differentiation of compulsory education accessibility and its capitalization effects in Hangzhou. Results show that (1) the improved Gaussian two‐step floating catchment area model is more in line with the national condition of China’s “nearby schooling” policy; (2) the accessibility of compulsory schools in Hangzhou shows an obvious core‐periphery typology, and the aggregation effect of primary school accessibility is more significant than that of secondary schools; (3) compared to groups with high socioeconomic status, vulnerable groups are highly disadvantaged in terms of access to educational services; (4) spatial heterogeneity exists in education capitalization, and the areas where education accessibility has the strongest impact on housing prices are in the central city with rich high‐quality educational resources; (5) high‐quality educational resources, high‐priced communities, clusters of high socioeconomic status groups, and communities enjoying high‐level education accessibility are highly consistent in all spaces, which is the spatial expression of educational inequality. The research on Hangzhou, a regional central city, provides a theoretical basis and technical support for the humanistic shift in the allocation of educational resources.
Highlights
As economic globalization and neoliberalism advance, the gap between rich and poor has widened drastically
From 2009 to 2019, the total number of students in school increased by 42.5% and the number of schools increased by 26.3% [55]
The level of educational resource supply in Hangzhou is at the forefront of the whole country. e number of public education degrees offered per 10,000 people is 606.7, far exceeding the national average. e student-to-teacher ratio of primary and secondary schools is 15 : 1 and 12 : 1, which exceeds the standard set by “Opinions on the Establishment of the Standards for the Establishment of Primary and Secondary School Staff” from the Central Editing Office which set them at 19 : 1 and 13.5 : 1
Summary
As economic globalization and neoliberalism advance, the gap between rich and poor has widened drastically. Given that differences in individual family background and ability endowments naturally exist and are difficult to eliminate, it is a top priority for the country’s education efforts to rationalize the allocation of educational resources through the process of spatial redistribution and to alleviate educational inequality caused by unequal social and economic status. Because of the scarcity of educational resources and differentiation of local government’s economic strength, there are extensive regional, urban-rural, and interschool differences in the allocation of educational resources [1, 2]. Since educational resources directly determine students’ performance and play a decisive role in their future career choices [3,4,5], differences in the allocation of educational resources highlight the key role of education in the production and reproduction of identity by social groups [6, 7].
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