Standard needs of the italian primary schools

The education sector in Italy is mainly public and highly centralized concerning both financial and regulatory aspects. However, there are significant disparities in school spending and students’ performance across regions. This heterogeneity is also relevant in relation to the ongoing fiscal decentralization process, which could imply the assignment of responsibility for education to sub-central governments or, even more directly, to schools. The aim of the paper is to estimate the standard financial requirement for a sample of about 1,000 primary schools for the year 2009/2010, based on the demand of service (e.g., the number of students, the type of school), and compare it with the current endowment in order to evaluate whether a better allocation of available resources can be obtained. Results suggest that the actual spending is quite far from the standard for all schools; most of them should get a positive correction, receiving more resources to accomplish their tasks.