An Empirical Study of Per-student Spending in Chinese Minority and Non-minority Districts

Using national grassroots-level education finance data for the year 2000,this study analy- zes the per-student spending of compulsory education in minority and non-minority districts in Chi- na.It is found that the spending level of minority districts is lower than that of non-minority dis- tricts.However,more in-depth analysis finds that especially at the primary level there are no evi- dent funding gaps between minority and non-minority districts in the minority-concentrated"Region Two"and"Region Three".Per-student spending of the two types of minority districts at the junior- secondary level is not the lowest in their own regions,either.The descriptive analysis also reveals that in compulsory education schools in minority districts rely more on budgetary funding and thus mobilize to a lesser extent from student families and communities than do their non-minority counter- parts.Multi-regression analysis indicates that financing of Chinese compulsory education is neither"wealth-neutral"nor"fiscally-neutral".All else being equal,minority districts have higher per- student spending relative to non-minority districts.