First, the public welfare of education.
In the Modern Chinese Dictionary, "public welfare" is interpreted as "public interest (mostly referring to public welfare undertakings such as health and relief)"; Correspondingly, there are some concepts in English, such as "publicbenefit", "Commonwealth" and "publicwelfare". The public education organized by the government is completely or partially free, which can be regarded as a kind of "public welfare" in a certain sense; However, when discussing the problem of private education, it is considered that "private education belongs to public welfare undertakings", which obviously does not mean that private education provides such free benefits, but can increase "the public interests of the country and society" Therefore, this paper holds that the public welfare of private education and its related issues should be discussed in the sense of "public interest".
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:
(A) the social benefits brought about by the externalities of private benefits.
Educated people are the direct beneficiaries of educational activities, and education can improve personal economic and non-economic returns, which is the private benefits 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]. JacobMincer, 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.
(B) the social benefits brought by the sociality of educational activities
Education is a complicated social activity. Education should not only serve the educated as individuals, but also serve socio-economic and non-economic purposes.
The contribution of education to the public interest is that education can promote the formation of a common value, moral norms and social system, 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. MiltonFriedman even thinks: "If most citizens don't have the minimum culture and knowledge and don't widely accept some 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 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. GeorgePsacharopoulous 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 school, secondary school 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.
Second, the public welfare of private education.
Private education, as an important part of the whole education system, also has public welfare.
(a) Public welfare generated by personnel training
By receiving private education, the knowledge, ability, physical strength and moral character of the educated can be developed. After receiving education, these educated people can not only improve their economic benefits and various non-economic benefits, but also make their own contributions to economic and social development through their work and daily life as educated qualified citizens. The public welfare of private education is also manifested in cultivating social "* * * with the same value". There is no substantial difference between private education and public education in terms of moral goals, political goals, related educational contents and educational methods. In order to gain social recognition, some private schools even pay more attention to ideological and moral education, emphasizing the cultivation of students' excellent qualities such as civilization, friendship, law and discipline, health and environmental protection.
(B) Public welfare brought by holding education
Because education has a very important social public welfare, holding education is also considered as a lofty cause of "benefiting the present and making contributions to the future". The public welfare of holding private education is mainly manifested in the following aspects:
1. Expand educational opportunities. Throughout the ages, it is impossible for any government to arrange all education and meet all the educational needs of society. Even in the richest countries in the world, access to education, especially high-level, high-quality and personalized education, is always limited. Private education can effectively supplement the shortage of public education and provide more educational opportunities for the society. "At this stage, China's education supply is generally insufficient, and there are insufficient opportunities for quality education in compulsory education. In the stage of non-compulsory education, there are both quality shortages and quantity shortages. Therefore, generally speaking, the emergence of private schools always enhances the public interest of local society. " [7]
2. Increase educational choices. Educated people have different physical and mental development and diverse educational needs, so they should "teach students in accordance with their aptitude". Whether in public education or private education, it is an important goal for school operators to adapt to the diverse needs of the educated. Because private schools mainly rely on tuition fees and social funds, in order to obtain more students and funds, they often pay more attention to meeting the needs of students and parents, and attract educatees with special needs by carrying out various special education. This increase in educational choices is a richer expression of educational "products" and the direction of educational progress and development. Friedman even thought: "Only by privatizing most of the education system can education be completely rebuilt, and private for-profit institutions will provide more diversified learning opportunities and form effective competition with public schools." [8]
3. Reduce the financial pressure on government education. Since private education is mainly organized and operated by private funds, the government rarely provides direct financial assistance except for certain land concessions, business income and other tax breaks. For the government, the per capita investment of private education is far lower than that of public education, and it is also lower than the marginal investment brought by increasing the number of students in the existing public education system. Given the government's financial investment in education and the total number of people receiving education, the more students in private education, the fewer students in public schools, the more education funds per student in public schools, and the quality of education is expected to improve. This is obviously an external effect with public welfare.
4. Expand welfare education. In the practice of private education development around the world, there are many charitable schools for the disadvantaged groups, and these schools (mostly missionary schools) often provide free education for some poor children. Not all the private schools in China are geared to the high-income class. On the contrary, many private schools are more flexible in charging fees and independent in running schools, and often provide education for the disadvantaged groups in various ways for various reasons. These forms include: establishing "civilian" education; Organize a "school for migrant children"; Special education for disabled children; Reduce tuition for poor students, and so on. These education can be regarded as a part of social welfare with public welfare.
5. Promote public education reform. In the development of private education, on the one hand, it draws lessons from the experience and resources of public education, and at the same time, it constantly forms its own characteristics and advantages, such as paying attention to the cultivation of students' personality, management efficiency, and forming a flexible mechanism to meet market demand. Some private schools have also provided high-quality education through strict management and collective efforts, forming a situation of competition with public schools. Therefore, public schools are gradually rethinking and reforming, and even learning from the beneficial experience of private schools. This competitive relationship will eventually promote the reform and development of the entire education system.
Third, the profitability of private education.
From an economic point of view, profit refers to the balance between income and expenditure. As long as the total income is greater than the institutional cost of running a school, private schools can achieve profitability. From a theoretical and practical point of view, this is entirely possible, and this possibility stems from the following aspects:
The tuition fee level may be higher than the average training cost.
Theoretically, when parents or educatees choose an educational service, they will not consider the training cost of this kind of education, but mainly consider the possible benefits (especially personal benefits) brought by education. As long as the lifelong benefits (economic and non-economic) brought by receiving education are equal to or greater than the costs (including direct costs and opportunity costs) paid by receiving such education, people may choose to receive such education. In other words, from the perspective of demand, tuition fees are mainly related to the income of the educated, but not directly related to the cost of running a school. From the perspective of supply, when setting the tuition level, schools should not only consider the cost of running a school, but also consider the possible "bid" of students. Because tuition is only a "transaction price" that both the supply and demand sides of education are willing to accept, schools may recruit students at a tuition level higher than the training cost, thus bringing profits. Because of the complexity, lag and permanence of the influence of education, it is difficult for the educated to accurately estimate the benefits that education may bring to them all their lives, so education consumption may also be irrational. Some parents are willing to pay high tuition fees for their children to receive private education as long as they think it is "worthwhile", which also provides the possibility for private schools to charge more than the cost.
The tuition level may be higher than the marginal cost of running a school.
Marginal training cost is the extra cost for each additional student in a school. In China, many private schools are attached to public schools or developed by using the resources of public schools. Typical examples are private branch schools run by public schools or "independent colleges" run by private institutions in public universities. For these private schools, because public schools have provided them with basic resources such as teachers, teaching venues, instruments and equipment, their training cost can actually be regarded as a marginal cost. Other "pure" private schools will also make more or less use of public education resources, such as hiring retired teachers from public schools and hiring part-time teachers from public schools. Since public schools have paid basic salary, housing and endowment insurance for these teachers, private schools only need to pay "extra" labor remuneration for these teachers, thus saving a lot of personnel costs. In this way, the cost of running a private school may be lower than the average cost of running a school in society, and it is often possible to achieve a balance of payments. At this time, if the fees are charged according to the average social cost, private schools may generate profits.
(3) The income from tuition, government subsidies and social donations may be higher than the cost of school training.
Due to the public welfare of education, most governments in the world provide financial subsidies to private schools in different forms, and various social organizations and individuals also donate and subsidize private schools in different ways. According to the statistical data of 1994, OECD countries have an average of 10% of public funds for private schools [9]. In addition to direct financial assistance, the government and society often provide subsidies for private education, including scholarships, grants, interest subsidies for student loans, tax relief and other indirect subsidies. China's Private Education Promotion Law stipulates: "People's governments at or above the county level can support private schools by subsidizing, leasing or transferring idle state-owned assets". Although private schools in China mainly rely on tuition fees at present, some schools have obtained some government subsidies and social donations from different channels. According to the above statement, even if it is operated entirely by tuition income, private schools may still have a surplus. If there are government subsidies and other sources of funds that do not need to be repaid, private schools will naturally have greater profitability.
In fact, according to the above analysis, in public schools, if the total amount of government subsidies is higher than the school's expenditure, or the school's total income (including government subsidies, tuition and fees, sponsorship fees and other income) is higher than its school-running expenditure, these schools can also generate surpluses. It can be seen that profitability is a feature of private schools and public schools. As long as the school has income and expenditure behavior, it is possible to make a profit.
Fourthly, the profitability of private education.
"Profit" and "profit" are two different but related concepts. "Profit" reflects a state between income and expenditure, and income exceeds expenditure to generate profit; "Profit" is a description of economic behavior, and "seeking profit" is called profit. According to the different ways of dealing with profits, profit-making organizations and non-profit organizations can be distinguished. In for-profit organizations, the profits generated by their economic activities belong to the organization owners, while the profits of non-profit organizations are not owned by one or some individuals and can only be used for the development of the organization. Non-profit organizations are not unprofitable. Most non-profit organizations, such as foundations, hospitals and welfare homes, are actively making profits to expand their business. And many for-profit enterprises with poor management are not only unprofitable, but also may lose money.
At present, most private schools in the world are non-profit. Why is this happening? One explanation is that due to the complexity and long-term nature of the education process, there is a serious information asymmetry between the educated and the school, and it is difficult for the educated to judge the quality of education. In order to protect their own interests from loss, parents may prefer to choose non-profit educational institutions. For the purpose of "protecting parents' interests", the government has also given more preferential policies to private non-profit organizations. On the issue of education, consumers can't evaluate the quality, and they can only rely on the integrity of producers (school operators). In this case, public schools that are not for the purpose of making money are more trustworthy than for-profit private schools, because they will not lower the quality of education in order to make money. "[10] Another reason is that many private schools are founded by social donations, so their managers cannot make profits; At the same time, non-profit can make it possible for private schools to get more social donations, because donors will not worry that their donations will flow into the hands of school administrators. In addition, non-profit can also give schools reasons to win more government support, because school operators strive for financial funds for the development of public welfare undertakings, not for personal gain.
However, there is not enough evidence to show that "non-profit" non-profit organizations are an ideal institutional arrangement. Some scholars believe that due to the lack of personal interests, the lack of competition mechanism to improve efficiency, and the lack of barometer to show the ultimate performance-profit, non-profit organizations often have problems such as low effectiveness, low efficiency, high risk, and self-enrichment of managers [1 1]. Specific to the field of education, "non-profit" can not solve the serious information asymmetry between students, parents and schools, nor does it mean that it can reduce the cost of running schools. "Public schools are recognized as typical. According to Business Weekly 1995, although the average government expenditure on students increased by 25% after deducting inflation in the past 10 years, only 52 cents of every 1 dollar spent on the huge school system went to the classroom. " [12] This non-profit institutional arrangement can't even guarantee that school funds will not be pocketed, because school operators can increase school expenses, reduce school surplus or achieve "balance of payments" by raising wages and benefits. Even if the school has a surplus, it can be distributed to individuals through bonuses. Many public schools in China are "generating income" in various ways, and these incomes are mainly used for the payment of employees' salaries and bonuses. In addition, some scholars pointed out that because education is not for profit, it is often not the job choice of those with the highest level of education, which leads to the decline of teachers' relative level in the case of the general improvement of the whole social and cultural level, making the quality of education unable to improve with the improvement of social requirements. [13] because of non-profit, it will inevitably greatly reduce the investment of social funds in education, thus reducing the supply of educational services in the whole society.
It should be said that whether for-profit organizations should be allowed in the field of education is still inconclusive. In practice, in some developed countries such as the United States, some for-profit educational institutions have been allowed to exist. 1999-2000 academic year, there were 677 for-profit colleges and universities in the United States, including four-year 194 and two-year 483, accounting for 8% and 28% of the four-year and two-year programs respectively. Among the 4,985 higher education institutions that do not award degrees, for-profit institutions have become the mainstream, reaching 3,704, and for-profit higher education institutions have developed very rapidly [14]. Philip, a famous comparative education expert? After analyzing the development of for-profit higher education institutions in the United States and other countries, PhilipAltbach thinks that for-profit higher education has become an important global phenomenon [15]. In the field of basic education, government funding is an important reason why public schools are not profitable, but these reasons have also been challenged, because providing education by the government does not necessarily mean holding it directly. As long as the quality of education can be guaranteed, it can also be funded by the government and organized by for-profit or non-profit private institutions. Friedman's famous "education voucher" thought holds this view. He believes: "In order to provide funds for the minimum school education stipulated by the government, the government can issue tickets to parents ... Education services can be provided by for-profit or non-profit private educational institutions. The role of the government is limited to ensuring that the plans of approved schools must maintain certain minimum standards. " [16] In the United States, for-profit educational management institutions have actually appeared. Entrusted by the government, they manage public schools in the form of charterschool and contractschool, and these institutions have developed rapidly. In the school year of 1998- 1999, there were 13 companies managing about 135 schools. In the 2000-200 1 school year, there were already 2 1 companies managing about 285 schools, among which the largest Edison Education Company reached 20065438+. [ 17]
Private schools in China came into being under a specific historical background, and their founding funds basically came from personal and social support, mainly belonging to investment rather than donation. In this case, there should be no obstacles to allow some private schools to operate as for-profit institutions. Returning to the stipulation that "no organization or individual may set up schools or other educational institutions for profit" in China's education law, we can think that this is a stipulation on the value orientation of educational activities, and its essence is to require that educational activities should aim at "teaching and educating people" rather than "making profits". In this sense, this provision is obviously reasonable. However, the purpose of holding education is diverse, and the purpose of making profits can go hand in hand with the purpose of cultivating people. If school operators can provide public welfare education services according to the requirements of the state and make profits through effective management, what is the reason and necessity for the government to prevent them from obtaining this surplus?
In reality, a number of for-profit education and training institutions such as New Oriental School have actually appeared in China. After a period of development, some private primary and secondary schools and private universities in China have also begun to make profits. In these schools, some organizers have actually achieved economic returns through various means through the control of the schools [18]. From the consumer's point of view, the profit-making behavior of these institutions has not affected the social trust in them, and even the training of New Oriental schools needs to be registered and queued several months in advance; From the government's point of view, we also know that these institutions are profitable and are already managing and collecting taxes in the form of enterprises, but there is no separate classification of "for-profit educational institutions" through the formal system.
Verb (abbreviation of verb) Conclusion: There is no contradiction between the public welfare and profitability of private education.
Private education is an institutional arrangement different from public education. Under this institutional arrangement, private schools are mainly organized by private funds and operated by tuition fees, while public schools are mainly organized and maintained by the government. Nevertheless, private education is as public as public education, and public education is as profitable as private education. Because private education has public welfare, its logical inference is that private education should also obtain government permission and support like public schools; Due to the different sources of school funds, public schools and private schools should handle school profits differently. The balance of public schools can only be used for school development, while private schools invested by individuals and enterprises should be allowed to run profitable schools and become for-profit educational institutions. It can be seen that public welfare is the social influence formed after running a school, and for-profit is an institutional arrangement for running a school and dealing with the profit of running a school. They are neither a pair of contradictions in the same category nor a direct correspondence. Profit does not necessarily hinder the public welfare of private schools, and non-profit does not necessarily increase the public welfare of schools.
From the perspective of public welfare, protecting and expanding public interests is one of the most important responsibilities of the government. The degree of public welfare is an important basis for government financial support. The higher the degree of public welfare, the greater the government support. For some strategic enterprises related to the national economy and people's livelihood, although they are for profit, the government usually gives policy support and tax incentives. In this sense, for-profit educational institutions with public welfare should not only get permission from the government, but also give policy and financial support to some for-profit educational institutions with high public welfare (such as providing training for laid-off workers and education for vulnerable groups).
From the perspective of protecting consumers' interests, the government can limit the profit level of for-profit educational institutions through relevant laws and regulations to prevent profiteering and deception. But in fact, due to its public welfare (spillover of income) and the need to compete with public schools with a lot of financial support, it is difficult for private schools to obtain school surplus, especially for-profit schools. In order to gain competitive advantage and long-term development, these schools must control their own profit level. Therefore, as long as the relevant systems are continuously established and improved, there is no need to choke on food and prohibit the existence of for-profit educational institutions for fear of harm to consumers.
From the perspective of educational development and institutional reform, due to the existence of huge public education system and non-profit private education system, for-profit private education institutions may be only a few at least in the near future, but no matter how many, the emergence of for-profit educational institutions will have important theoretical significance, which will make people re-understand the characteristics of education and get out of the misunderstanding of the contradiction between educational public welfare and profit. In practice, it can not only make some private schools make profits reasonably and legally, but also greatly broaden the space for institutional innovation in education management, education financing and school-running incentives.