School Finance Policy and Justice

The contemporary era of globalization and the shift towards the knowledge-based economy challenge the nation-state education finance policy. The increasing need to achieve and sustain competitiveness and, at the same time, maintain social cohesiveness challenge the method by which the nation-state finances its educational system. The academic and public discourse have perceived these two goals of competiveness and cohesiveness as contradictory. This chapter claims the opposite. Common strategies that are used to achieve both goals are reviewed in this chapter, and an alternative approach is developed.

This chapter conceptualizes the relationships between education finance principles and justice. It examines different theories of justice (e.g., Plato, Rawls ) and analyzes underlying funding principles of the right to education within the framework of state competitiveness and social cohesiveness. This examination reveals that alternative funding principles are in line with different theories of justice. This, in turn, legitimizes alternative decisions regarding redistribution mechanisms perceived as just or unjust. Each of the alternative principles is measured using a different approach of the meaning of resource allocation to education. Finally, an alternative approach of improvement is discussed. This approach dispels the common Trade-Off view and suggests that both competitiveness and cohesion might be achieved using a composite concept comprised of improvement and equity for allocating educational funds.