Educational funding and inequity: A Comparative study between two districts of Buenos Aires City

Abstract

This paper analyzes the relationship in educational funding between the public and private sectors by comparing public spending on public primary education and financial resources transfers to private primary schools in two districts of Buenos Aires City. First, the concept of state quasi-monopoly is defined, which characterizes the Argentine educational system in terms of funding, and the relationship between equity and efficiency in educational funding is explored. Next, the number of studentes in different districts is outlined and classified in public or private schools, correlating this data with poverty levels to appropriately select the districts for comparison. Subsequently, the spending by the City of Buenos Aires (CABA) on public primary education is compared to the transfers made to private institutions in both Communes, focusing on efficiency and equity. Results show that the enourmous difference in enrollment between both sectors has significant implications for public education funding and presents inequalities in key indicators such as the student-to-teacher ratio and access to full-time education. Finally, an illustrative exercise is proposed in which the district with the lowest percentage of public schools students behaves like the district with the highest proportion of public students to demonstrate the effects of the state quasi-monopoly on educational funding.