In the period of social transformation, the problem of educational equity in China has become increasingly prominent. Educational welfare policy plays an important role in adjusting and integrating in political, economic, social and cultural fields. It is an important measure to promote education equity, improve education welfare and implement the strategy of rejuvenating the country through science and education, which embodies the responsibility of the government to develop public education services. In line with the government's emphasis on the role change of service function, the value orientation and evolution trend of education welfare policy adhering to fairness and justice are becoming increasingly clear.

In China, few scholars or official documents use the concept of "education welfare policy", and similar concepts mainly include education subsidy policy, education subsidy policy and so on. The author believes that the concept of financial aid or assistance often emphasizes economic aid or some kind of support measures, and the logic behind it is more reflected in a relief charity than the responsibility of public education services, which is far from covering the core essence of education welfare.

Pigou, a British economist who founded the welfare economics school, believes that welfare consists of utility, and utility is satisfaction. The essence of human nature is the pursuit of the greatest satisfaction, that is, the greatest utility, and it can also be said that it is the pursuit of the greatest welfare. From the perspective of economics, education itself has typical positive externalities, so it is closely related to welfare. The so-called educational welfare refers to supporting and developing education through various channels with the goal of promoting and ensuring the fairness of educational rights, so as to achieve the overall effect of improving the quality of the people and promoting the all-round development of individuals and society.

Some scholars divide social welfare into two types from the perspective of functionalism: remedial social welfare and institutional social welfare. The former focuses on the "weak", while the latter emphasizes serving all members of society. Accordingly, educational welfare, as an important part of social welfare, can also be divided into two types: one is "inclusive" educational welfare, which emphasizes that all members of society have the right to enjoy a certain number of years or a certain type of education, and safeguards their rights or opportunities for education through certain system design, such as providing "free compulsory education" to school-age children; The second is "selective" education welfare, which provides welfare services to the disadvantaged groups obliquely based on the fact of unfair education and the overall effectiveness of promoting education to ensure that their right to education is implemented cleanly. Sociological theory generally believes that the so-called vulnerable groups refer to those who are at a disadvantage in society because of their own obstacles or lack of economic, political and social opportunities, and refer to the community of people who need special care and care in society.

It is consistent with the basic view that social policy aims at "solving social problems to achieve specific social goals such as justice and welfare". The so-called educational welfare policy refers to a series of laws, regulations, measures and methods formulated and promulgated by the state and society through certain decision-making procedures in order to adjust and meet the educational needs of society or specific groups and improve their educational welfare. From the dynamic analysis, the education welfare policy covers the whole process of policy decision-making, implementation, supervision and evaluation; From a static point of view, education welfare policy refers to relevant laws, regulations and measures. As mentioned above, education welfare policies can be divided into "inclusive" education welfare policies and "selective" education welfare policies based on the target social groups. What kind of educational welfare policy is adopted is often closely related to a certain national political system, economic development level, social specific structure and social and cultural background.

Before the reform and opening up, China's welfare education model of "free tuition plus grants" was similar to many so-called "welfare countries" in the west, which had a far-reaching impact on theoretical circles and policy makers. It has become a consensus that China's social security system should avoid welfare. Based on this logical assumption, in the process of establishing and developing the socialist market economy, our government pursues the economic growth rate unilaterally, on the other hand, it gradually retreats in the social welfare fields including education and welfare. "Education is not a free lunch" has become a buzzword in the reform era. Until the end of last century, with the increasing exposure of social contradictions caused by social equity, the government gradually realized the great significance of public services to the benign development of society, and more and more people agreed with the concepts of "responsible government", "service-oriented government" and "caring for people's livelihood", which led the efforts to transform government functions. With the changing trend of the government's role becoming more and more obvious and rapid, the value orientation and evolution trend of adhering to fair and just education and welfare policies become clearer.