06-abr-2016 | Presentación de Pau Marí-Klose (Universidad de Zaragoza) en el Workshop 'Education in the 21st Century: Lessons learnt from Federal an Decentralized Systems' organizado por la Fundación Alternativas.

1. Descentralization, equity and
public expenditures in
education. The Spanish case
Pau Marí-Klose (University ofZaragoza, CSIC)

2. Introduction
 Ronald L. Watts “Spain is a federation in all
but name”.
 The Kingdom of Spain is one of the most
decentralised countries in the world.
 Decentralization has followed different paths
and has proceeded at a different pace in the
various Autonomous Communities (ACs)
 The ACs have vastly different educational
outcomes

3. Evolution and characteristics
First phase 1979-1980 Catalonia and the Basque Country
Second phase 1981-
1992
Andalucía, Canarias, Comunidad Valenciana,
Galicia and Navarra
Third phase 1992- 2000 Aragón, Asturias, Baleares, Cantabria,
Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León,
Extremadura, La Rioja, Madrid, Murcia
Main steps of the decentralisation process in education

4. Functional division between
governmental layers
 different framework acts (1985 LODE; 2002 LOCFP;
2006 LOE; 2013 LOMCE)
 central government:
 the general organisation of the education system,
 the definition of minimum requirements for educational
establishments,
 the formulation of the nation-wide general plan for
education and the establishment of the common
educational standards,
 the design of the core curriculum in relation to the
objectives, skills, content, evaluation criteria, standards
and measurable learning outcomes

5. Functional division between
governmental layers
 Autonomous Communities regulatory powers to
develop the basic state standards of education
system management of the resources
 everyday routine of running the system,
 the administrative tenure of educational institutions,
 the founding, construction and management of public
educational institutions, the teachers and other staff.
 grant and administer scholarships and grants.
 licensing of private non-subsidised schools (centros
privados) and for private schools partly financed with
public funds by means of educational agreements
(centros concertados)

6. Functional division between
governmental layers
 Local authorities do not have specific
executive and legislative competence
 responsible for obtaining the land for building
schools
 conservation and the maintenance of the state
kindergartens and primary schools;
 enforcement of compulsory education laws.

7. Evolution of expenditure on
education
ACs are responsiblle for 83% of public spending in
education (above the spending of constituent units in
Germany)
Source: MEC 2016, elaborated by Mario Kölling and Xavier Rambla

8. Fiscal effort
The difference between the AC that spend the most (Basque Country) and the AC
that spends the least (Andalucia) has broadened over time (in absolute terms).
Some ACs made a signficant financial effort to catch up (Galicia, Asturias)
MEC data

9. Regional variation in educational policy
 Beyond spending, there is wide array of
institutional setups , regulations and decisions
that produce variations across ACs: the
relative weight of the private sector, the
nature of public-private partnerships, teacher
recruitment, inspection, municipal
competencies, etc.
 Two burning issues
Policies to prevent school failure and early
leaving
Language policies

10. Large socioeconomic differences
across ACs
 Large variation in GDP per capita between rich
and poor ACs
 Large variation in the educational background
of the population across ACs. The key role of
social legacies
This variation reflects to a large extent differences
already found in the XIX century in terms of illiteracy
rates

11. Fuente: Vilanova y Moreno (1992)

12. Educational outcomes
The ACs that obtain good scores in the Northern ACs had
already low illiteracy rates in the XIX century
Ranking position and score in the PISA tests. 2009 and 2012
Castilla y León 2 503 3 505 1 514 2 509 2 516 1 519 1,8
Navarra 5 497 2 509 2 511 1 517 3 509 4 514 2,8
Madrid 1 503 1 511 6 496 4 504 4 508 2 517 3,0
La Rioja 4 498 9 490 5 504 5 503 2 509 6 510 5,2
País Vasco 7 494 7 498 3 510 3 505 10 495 7 506 6,2
Asturias 8 490 4 504 9 494 6 500 7 502 3 517 6,2
Aragón 6 495 8 493 4 506 7 496 6 505 8 504 6,5
Cataluña 3 498 5 501 7 496 8 493 9 497 10 492 7,0
Galicia 10 486 6 499 10 489 10 489 5 506 5 512 7,7
Cantabria 9 488 10 485 8 495 9 491 8 500 9 501 8,8
Andalucía 12 461 11 477 13 462 12 472 12 469 11 486 11,8
Murcia 11 480 13 462 11 478 13 462 11 484 14 479 12,2
Baleares 13 457 12 476 12 464 11 475 13 461 12 483 12,2
Canarias 14 448 - - 14 435 - - 12 452 - - 13,3
Extremadura - - 14 457 - - 14 461 - - 13 483 13,7
Ceuta y Melilla 15 412 - - 15 417 - - 15 416 - - 15,0
Average
position in
the ranking
(2009-2012)Rank Score Rank Score Rank ScoreRank Score Rank Score Rank ScoreCC.AA.
Reading Mathematics Science
2009 2012 2009 2012 2009 2012

13. Legacies of the past
Literacy rates in the XIX century are positively correlated
with PISA reading scores in 2009. Also with school failure
(even after controlling por public spending levels)
Fuente: Elaboración propia a partir de J.S Martínez, Debate callejero, 18 de octubre de 2012,
http://www.debatecallejero.com/por-que-es-tan-alto-el-abandono-educativo/ y Nuñez (2005)

14. So, to what extent spending matters
(1)?
The higher the spending levels, the lower school failure
rates

15. So, to what extent spending matters
(2) ?
The higher public spending levels, the lower early school
leaving

16. Multi-level model to predict PISA scores
472,7
481,1
490,2
538,2 539,9 541,7
400
420
440
460
480
500
520
540
560
ESCS Bajo (AND) ESCS Bajo (CLM) ESCS Bajo (PV) ESCS Alto ESCS Medio ESCS Alto (AND)
ValorespredichosenCiencia
Public spending by the AC has a significant cross-level effect.
It increases scores of low socioeconomic students, but ha
no effect on students at the higher end of the
socioeconomic spectrum

17. Language policy
 Double tier system (Basque Country)
 Immersion approach (Catalonia)
 Mixed approach (Balearic Island, Galicia, C.
Valenciana)

18. The educational outcomes of
language policy

19. Conclusion
 The process initiated in 1978 has turned Spain
into one of the most descentralized systems in
the world in the educational field
 There is a significant variation in public
expenditures and educational policies across
ACs
 Social legacies play a major role in
educational outcomes
 Controlling for these legacies, public spending
(and probably the mix of educational policies)
has an effect on equity