The gap and two-level differentiation in kindergarten education funding groups in China

Abstract

This paper examines the disparity in kindergarten education funding between different groups from 2012 to 2018 through the Gini coefficient and decomposition techniques. The results show that: the Gini coefficient of inter-provincial kindergarten education funding increased from 0.2320 in 2012 to 0.2329 in 2018 during the observation period; the Gini coefficients between urban and rural areas and between regions are smaller than those between provinces, but it is noteworthy that the Gini coefficient between urban and rural areas is growing faster; the gap at this stage mainly comes from the internal gap between the two items of state financial education funding and career income. The internal disparity between urban and rural areas and between regions also contributes significantly to the overall disparity; there is no obvious polarisation in kindergarten education funding. Combined with the analysis results, the following recommendations are made: increase the investment in education funds, gradually reduce the proportion of school fee income in career income, financial resources should be tilted toward kindergartens in regions with relatively slow economic development, and financial resources should be appropriately distributed between public and private kindergartens.