The public welfare of education refers to the economic and non-economic benefits that education can bring to other members of society except the educated (and their immediate family members). This kind of public welfare is mainly manifested in: the educated are the direct beneficiaries of educational activities, and education can improve personal economic and non-economic returns, which is the private benefit of education. This selfishness is manifested in the fact that education can improve personal economic benefits. The basic view of human capital theory is that education is a kind of human capital investment, and through education, individuals' knowledge, skills and labor productivity can be improved, thus obtaining higher income in the labor market. A large number of statistical results show that the higher the education level, the higher the relative income. According to OECD's statistics on the relative income of workers with different education levels in member countries, if the income of high school graduates is 100, the average relative income of those who have received high school education is 79, and that of those who have received university education is 162[ 1]. Another important aspect of education is to improve the employability of individuals. According to the statistics of OECD on the unemployment rate of the educated population at all levels in its member countries from 65438 to 0995, the average unemployment rate of the educated population below high school in various countries is 10. 1%, while the unemployment rate of the educated population in high school and university is only 7.0% and 4.0% respectively [2]. Jacob Mincer, a famous economist, believes that workers with higher education have at least three advantages in the labor market: higher income; Greater employment stability; More promotion opportunities [3]. Other studies show that education can enhance personal health knowledge and form good health habits, thus promoting personal health. In addition, education can enrich people's spiritual life and improve people's life taste by improving people's cultural literacy. It can improve the quality of marriage and family life and promote prenatal and postnatal care; It can improve the decision-making ability and consumption level to improve the efficiency of resource use, and so on.

While education brings benefits to the educated, it can also benefit other members and the whole society through the educated. This kind of influence is called the externality of educational influence. All kinds of influences of education on individuals can form social influences. For example, education can improve individual health, which can bring a series of public benefits, including: reducing the spread of diseases, thus ensuring the health of others; Improve the attendance rate, thereby improving the labor efficiency of its colleagues and departments; Reduce medical expenses, public medical expenses and insurance expenses. Education can increase personal income, thereby increasing taxes and improving social welfare; Education can improve the employability of individuals, thus reducing unemployment and government unemployment insurance, and so on. Education is a complicated social activity. Education should not only serve the educated as individuals, but also serve the common economic and non-economic purposes of society.

The contribution of education to the public interest is that education can promote the formation of common values, moral standards and social systems, thus promoting social civilization, freedom, democracy, equality and stability, and promoting national unity, national unity and social progress. Some people think that "a basic contribution of education to the public interest is its role in maintaining and developing democracy and freedom." Educated people should be more civilized and tolerant. Educated people will participate in elections, and they will make reasonable choices when voting "[4]. Milton friedman even thought: "If most citizens don't have the minimum culture and knowledge and widely accept some common values, a stable and democratic society can't exist" [5]. In the development of human society, the cultivation of virtues such as unity and friendship, respect for the old and love for the young, diligence and enterprising, kindness and law-abiding always depends mainly on education. Education plays a very important role in eliminating poverty, promoting social equity and reducing social crimes.

Promoting economic growth is another important social contribution of education. The theory of human capital was originally put forward to explain the mystery of economic growth. Theodore? Theodore schultz believes that education, training, health, immigration and other activities can improve human capital, and the improvement of human capital is an important reason for economic growth. Since then, many economists, such as E.F. Denison, have estimated the contribution rate of education in economic growth. Although these estimation methods are different and their results and explanations are different, they are consistent in that education has a very large positive contribution rate to economic growth. As a social investment, education can produce social benefits, and the rate of return of this investment is called the social rate of return of education investment. By studying dozens of countries, George Psacharopoulous and others found that education investment has a high social rate of return in different countries, among which the average social rates of return of primary schools, secondary schools and higher education in Asian countries are 27%, 65,438+05% and 65,438+03% respectively. In moderately developed countries, it is 13%, 10% and 8% respectively. [6]

The development of culture and the progress of science and technology are another value pursuit of human society. While cultivating people, education is also engaged in the selection, inheritance, protection, promotion and discovery of knowledge and culture, protecting and inheriting traditional culture, discovering knowledge and laws, and promoting scientific and technological progress. These are also one of the important contents of educational public welfare.