Effects Of Government On Education

Introduction

At a time when cutbacks are being made across the world in order to cut countries deficits and attempt to stop the world slipping back further into recession, there is the concern about how countries actually spend their money. How do they decide what sectors receive the most money? Each country decides what is important in relation to its size, population of the country, the age of those residing in the country and on the political involvements of the country. You would like to think that your country would spend more on health and education than the likes of warfare, and while some countries do, others place warfare spending above that of spending on health and education. Providing education is an important function of the State. Education prepares citizens for the State. Thus education and state are mutually related and one works for the other. Close relationship between state and education could be seen even in the ancient Greece. This paper discusses the effect of government of education. In this paper, we will compare and contrast the education budget across the world, and discuss the role of government towards providing education. Furthermore, we will also analyze DREAM Act 2 in this regard.

Education budget cuts can be necessary for a variety of reasons. They can occur when districts lose students, as public school districts are funded based on per-pupil counts. They can also occur when state governments face budget deficits and are forced to reduce spending across the board (Topel13). Reduced district funding forces administrators to make difficult decisions in cutting budgets. These decisions can impact school staff members and students. Unites States budget crisis spurred many statewide anti-education cuts in 2009 and 2010. These cuts affected elementary, secondary and postsecondary educational systems. This resulted in lost jobs for school staff, larger class sizes and higher out-of-pocket expenses for students. More cuts were expected going forward.

Discussion

Education is an impure public good that can be provided privately. In a privately financed education model, education is as a normal good whose demand varies across households based on their income levels (Mulligan and Philip 1667). Education is associated with public benefits or externalities that justify government involvement. These externalities lead to welfare improvements and higher economic growth. On welfare grounds, public spending on education allows first a redistribution of resources from high income households (who bear the tax burden of education) to low income households. This redistribution allows for income mobility by providing children of low income households the opportunity to get an education so that they can increase their future incomes (Moretti 690). Next, education may lower the likelihood of criminal activities. A Lower likelihood of criminal activities implies greater safety and lower costs of associated government programs. Education can also lead to the improvement in the quality of the democratic process since it allows those who have accumulated it to disseminate the information on the political process to all citizens of a country (Lochner and Enrico ...