First of all, insufficient investment is an important reason. 1993 promulgated and implemented the Outline of Education Reform and Development in China, which set the goal that the proportion of national fiscal education expenditure to GDP should reach 4% by the end of the 20th century. Despite great efforts, it only reached 2.79% in 2004, which is incompatible with the rapid expansion of China's total education scale in recent years. Especially in the whole education investment, rural education investment is seriously insufficient. Before the reform of rural taxes and fees, the funds for rural compulsory education were borne by the county and township governments, but the financial resources of counties and townships were relatively weak and lacked guarantee, which led to more "debts" to rural education in many areas. The development of rural education mainly depends on charging farmers to run schools.
Secondly, the "school choice fever" caused by the unbalanced allocation of educational resources. Due to historical reasons, a few "key schools" were formed when the overall construction of the original schools was relatively backward. Later, although the key schools were cancelled, the traditional advantages still existed. Coupled with the artificial imbalance in the allocation of educational resources in some places, there is a big gap between schools at present, which has led to the "school choice fever". However, the number of children who can attend key schools is limited, so there are thousands or even tens of thousands of school selection fees and sponsorship fees. "School-choosing fever" not only increases the burden on parents, but also becomes the inducement of corruption.
Thirdly, all kinds of arbitrary charges and high fees have been repeatedly banned. In recent years, despite repeated requests from the education authorities, arbitrary charges are strictly prohibited. However, some localities and primary and secondary schools illegally charge exorbitant fees in various names, and some grass-roots governments and relevant departments apportion and collect ride fees from schools or students through schools, all of which increase the burden on students.
In addition, after the implementation of the charging system in colleges and universities, it is difficult for working families, especially rural families, to support a college student with tuition of several thousand yuan per year, plus accommodation and living expenses.
For the existing problems of difficulty and expensive schooling, we should treat them dialectically and analyze them concretely. We can't deny the great achievements in education development because of these problems, nor can we ignore the existing problems. On the whole, the overall development level of education in China is still low, and educational resources, especially high-quality educational resources, are in short supply. We must seriously solve the problems of difficult and expensive schooling through reform and development.