Principal investigator: Viviane Pires Ribeiro
Article title: QUALITY OF MUNICIPAL PUBLIC SPENDING ON PRIMARY EDUCATION IN BRAZIL
Article authors: Maria Dolores Montoya Diaz
Location of the intervention: Brazil
Sample size: 12.969 municipal schools
Main theme: Education
Type of Intervention: evaluation of policies to increase resources for education
Main Variable of Interest: Public spending on education
Evaluation method: Experimental Evaluation (RCT)
Evaluation Context
The report released in the United States in 1966, entitled Equality of Educational OpportunityThis is highly relevant to the debate regarding the effectiveness of resources applied to educational institutions. According to Diaz (2012), the results of this study indicated that the most important explanatory factors for students' academic performance were the family, followed by peers, relegating an insignificant role to the school. Subsequently, two names stood out in the literature on this topic: Erik A. Hanushek and Alan B. Krueger. The former defends the position that "more money makes no difference" in academic performance, and the latter defends some of the policies for increasing resources for schools.
Diaz (2012) emphasizes that this discussion has only recently arrived in Brazil. On the one hand, the results obtained by Brazilian students in international school performance assessments raise the "easy" argument that these results stem from low investments in education. On the other hand, it is possible to observe a growing dissatisfaction among the population with the upward trend in the Brazilian tax burden. Along these lines, according to the author, it is possible to focus on statistics on spending produced by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), which would lead to the opposite conclusion, that spending on education in the country is not small. That is, among the group of countries that participated in PISA (Program for International Student AssessmentIn 2003, Brazil was among those that, proportionally to its Gross Domestic Product, spent the most on education. In this context, Diaz (2012) seeks to discuss the quality of municipal spending per student in Brazilian municipal elementary schools.
Intervention Details
The databases used by the author were: the 2005 School Census, Prova Brasil (a mathematics assessment applied to fourth-grade elementary school students), and FINBRA (Brazilian Finance). Data on the IDEB (Basic Education Development Index) for each of the municipal schools, relating to the performance of fourth-grade students, were also obtained from the INEP (National Institute of Educational Studies and Research Anísio Teixeira) website. This totaled 12.969 municipal schools located in 2.910 Brazilian municipalities.
The average IDEB score for the initial grades of the analyzed schools was 3,76, reaching a maximum value of 7,3. Regarding the profile of the schools, the results indicated that approximately 85% had a water filtration system for student drinking water, less than half had a library, and a small proportion had a reading room (23%) and/or computer lab (30%). Concerning municipal public spending, the average percentage of education expenditure in relation to total expenditure was 27,06%, and the average percentage of primary education expenditure in relation to education expenditure was 78,44%.
Methodology Details
Diaz (2012) adopts multilevel models, with the final specification of a hierarchical model with two levels (schools and municipalities) and a random intercept. According to the author, these models allow for the simultaneous investigation of individual and contextual effects, as well as accommodating intragroup correlation and modeling complex variance structures.
Results
Diaz (2012) sought to verify whether the variables related to public spending are statistically significant and have positive signs, controlling for other aspects that theoretically also affect school performance and that represent the student profile, characteristics of the teaching staff and the school, and characteristics of the municipality. Thus, two distinct results were found in relation to the spending measures: a positive sign for the variable municipal spending per student, despite its very small size, indicating that the higher the municipal spending per student, the higher the expected IDEB value; and negative signs for both the percentage of education spending in relation to total municipal spending and for the percentage of primary education spending in relation to education spending.
The results found seem to indicate a small positive impact of municipal spending per student. However, the author points out that when evaluating overall spending, reflected in the analyzed percentage variables, it is observed that these variables reflect policy choices that are not necessarily accompanied by changes in aspects that would directly affect the conditions or factors that are effectively responsible for improving the quality of municipal public education. Thus, the results seem to indicate that simple increases in education spending do not necessarily lead to improvements in the quality of education, as measured by the IDEB (Basic Education Development Index).
Lessons in Public Policy
Does increased public spending on education improve the quality of teaching? The results found by Diaz (2012) indicate that simply increasing the percentage of municipal spending on education, or even the percentage of spending on primary education in relation to municipal spending on education, does not automatically guarantee an improvement in the quality of teaching. In other words, increased spending is not necessarily accompanied by changes in aspects that directly affect the conditions or factors that are effectively responsible for improving the quality of municipal public education. Therefore, before increasing spending, it is necessary to identify with due precision which aspects should be changed, and only then assess what resources would be needed to promote the necessary transformations. Results evaluations should be carried out constantly to verify whether the objectives are being achieved.
Diaz (2012) emphasizes that it is interesting to know how problems in the education system are dealt with in other countries. Citing an article published in the newspaper O Estado de São Paulo on April 29, 2007, in which Norman Gall reports his observations on the reforms implemented in the New York City education system, with the aim of improving school performance in the city. He summarized the reforms in six points: more authority for principals – and more accountability, increased classroom supervision and the provision of highly qualified teachers, a continuous process of applying exams and assessments, the adoption of measures to combat violence, indiscipline and disorder in schools, encouragement of parental involvement, and encouragement of greater private sector engagement in public education.
In short, the process of improving educational quality is slow and difficult because it affects vested interests and requires changes in ingrained habits and practices. However, to achieve good results, it is necessary to identify the aspects to be changed and define the efficient use of these resources, even before allocating more financial resources to institutions or systems with structural problems.
References
DIAZ, Maria Dolores Montoya. Quality of municipal public spending on primary education in Brazil. Brazilian Journal of Political Economy, v. 32, n. 1, p. 128-141, 2012.
