Expanding school enrollment by subsidizing private schools: lessons from Bogotà

Financing education: evidence from Colombia in subsidising private schools

By: Uribe C, Murnane R, Willett J & Somers M
Published by: National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), USA , 2005
Via: Eldis

Many countries use tax revenues to subsidise private schools. Whether these policies meet social objectives depends, in part, on the relative quality of education provided by the two types of schools. This study uses data on elementary school students and their teachers in Bogotá, Colombia to examine difference in resource mixes and differences in the relative effectiveness of public and private schools.

The authors find that, on average, the schools in the two sectors are equally effective. However, they produce education using very different resource combinations. Moreover, there are large differences in the effectiveness of schools in both sectors, especially in the private sector. The results of the analysis shed light on the quantity-quality tradeoff that governments in many developing countries face in deciding how to use scarce educational resources.