Chapter 760 Free Education Secondary School

Chapter 760 Free Education - Secondary School

Britain, France and the World League are in a tug-of-war over how to deal with Italy, and Arthur is not surprised by this.

Because it is far away from Europe, Australasia is happy to be sober. In addition, the white supremacy policy popular among Australasia people does not have much disgust for Italy's massacre of the Abyssinian Empire.

This also made Arthur feel relieved. After all, Arthur did not want to interfere in Italy's war at this time.

Although Italy is only a very weak enemy, as long as it interferes in this war, it is equivalent to participating in the chaotic European situation.

This will not only make Britain and France more defensive, but also make the newly emerging forces regard Australasia as an enemy.

Arthur will not do this obvious act of taking the blame for Britain and France unless public opinion is really so.

In order to divert the attention of Australasia people, Arthur began to work hard on Australasia's education policy.

July 20, 1930, Palais des Nations, Saint-Arthur Castle.

"Your Majesty, please take a look at this new education plan that our Ministry of Education has revised based on your instructions for the current free education policy. Please have a look." Cabinet Minister of Education Kylo Jefferson handed Arthur a thick document and introduced it.

Arthur nodded, took the document from Kylo Jefferson, and read it roughly.

Although it was only about the policy reform of free education, the document was by no means a few thin pages.

Even if it was just a rough reading, Arthur took more than ten minutes to barely read the new education reform plan.

"Raise free education to the level of middle school?" Arthur frowned slightly and looked at Minister Kylo.

"Yes, Your Majesty." Kylo Jefferson explained: "Some of our administrative regions with good financial conditions have now popularized free education at the junior high school level.

The plan for this free education reform is to popularize free education to the junior high school level across the country."

"Too slow." Arthur's brows were still furrowed, and his dissatisfaction was self-evident: "At present, the number of our high school and college students has been rising steadily, and the average level of education per capita is about to reach the high school stage.

In this case, if free education is only implemented up to junior high school, it would be a bit of a loss.

Minister Kylo, ​​the Ministry of Education is considering Have you ever considered extending free education to high school? "

Hearing Arthur's question, Kylo Jefferson's expression became serious and respectful, and he replied: "Yes, Your Majesty. But from the perspective of the financial level of each state, except for a few administrative regions such as Sydney and Victoria, other regions need a lot of government financial subsidies if they implement free education to high school.

At present, our education budget is not that much, and it is also a huge burden on the finances of the royal government. "

Although there is only one word difference between free education in junior high school and free education in high school, the actual results are very different.

In Australasia, the current junior high school education is no longer valuable. The average education level has generally reached junior high school, and junior high school students can be said to be a lot.

In this case, if free education is only extended to junior high school, it is equivalent to reducing the hope of changing the fate of a large part of the low-income people.

After all, although high school education is not so rare at this time, it is completely enough to find a job.

"If free education is improved to high school level, how much financial investment will be needed each year?" Arthur asked.

Although Australasia has only more than 30 million people, its investment in education is comparable to that of other powers.

Of course, the improvement is also huge. In just 30 years, the per capita education level in Australasia has risen from below primary school to above junior high school.

Arthur's annual investment in education scholarships is at least millions of Australian dollars.

"Compared with free education at the junior high school level, the annual fiscal deficit is at least 25 million Australian dollars." Kylo Jefferson explained.

Arthur nodded.

Although 25 million Australian dollars after the currency depreciation is not a big amount of money, it is indeed a figure that cannot be taken out for the current education department.

After all, the government's fiscal budget is proportional. If the education department invests more, it means that other departments have to invest less.

But at present, all departments are developing vigorously, and no department can spare so much funds. This is also the real reason why Kylo Jefferson formulated a free education plan for junior high school.

"I will set up a Royal Education Foundation to cover the textbook and material expenses of all students. If I remember correctly, the cost of these things is about 25 million Australian dollars, right?" Arthur thought for a moment and proposed a solution that could properly solve the problem.

"Yes. According to our estimates, after free education is upgraded to high school level, the annual textbook and material fees to be borne are about 25.22 million Australian dollars." Kylo Jefferson responded quickly.

"The royal family will bear this money, but my requirement is that free education at the high school level must be achieved nationwide. Is there a problem?" Arthur nodded, looked at Minister Kylo, ​​and asked with a slightly serious expression.

"No problem, Your Majesty." Minister Kylo nodded quickly, showing his most confident expression: "Please rest assured, I will definitely complete the plan and wait for your inspection."

The establishment of a special foundation for royal education was the result of Arthur's careful consideration. First of all, the royal family's funds should not be too confused with the government's financial budget.

Of course Arthur's money can be invested in government work, but it must bring sufficient returns to Arthur.

The return here does not refer to financial return, but to reputation, influence and various things that can bring actual benefits to Arthur.

Since it is the money invested by the royal family, the reward for fame should naturally be the past.

It is precisely because of this that the Royal Education Special Foundation was established to distinguish it from the government's education policy.

The president of the foundation is of course Arthur. After Arthur, the next president was William.

This can ensure that every penny invested by the royal family can be returned to the royal family as fame, ensuring that the money is not wasted.

If the money is handed over to the government, firstly, it will make the government the object of gratitude of the people. Secondly, there is no guarantee that the government will spend money, which will put the royal family in a relatively passive position.

"Does the education department have any relevant considerations regarding the imbalance of state fiscal revenue and expenditure?" Arthur then asked.

Free education definitely does not rely solely on the efforts of the education department, but is the result of the joint efforts of the cabinet government, the education department, states and municipal governments.

Generally speaking, the cabinet government and the education department will contribute a large share of the budget for educational policies, while the state governments will contribute a portion, and the remaining small portion will be allocated to the municipal governments.

But each region is different, and the fiscal budget it can provide is naturally also different.

Developed areas like Sydney can easily spend tens or even millions of dollars on education.

However, in some cities with smaller populations, the education funds they can allocate are only a few hundred thousand Australian dollars at most, which has created a relatively large difference.

There are also colonies. Some colonies had populations of only a few thousand people and little fiscal revenue.

Most of the uses of these colonies are strategic, which also means that the government and the education department have to subsidize money, and even have to be fully responsible for the education budget of these areas.

"Your Majesty, for our relatively special colonial area, the education department plans to jointly run schools to reduce our expenditure on education." Minister Kailuo said his plan.

"Jointly run a school? With whom specifically?" Arthur continued to ask.

"The direction currently being considered for joint ventures is probably between the Ministry of Education, states, municipal governments and local enterprises." Kailo Jefferson explained: "In some more remote areas, we have to consider more The problem is the education of the children of factory workers.

There are two types of questions of this type.

The first problem is that many workers' children are too far apart from their parents. Many of the factories built in the colonies and overseas territories had workers mostly from our homeland.

For the sake of their children's education, the children of these workers basically stay in their hometowns, which also leaves them without family care.

The Ministry of Education's plan is to cooperate with local governments and enterprises to build schools in areas close to the enterprises so that the children of these workers can reunite with their parents.

In order to ensure the enthusiasm of enterprises, the current plan is to require enterprises above a certain size to bear 20% of the cost of building schools in their areas.

If it is distributed to each large-scale enterprise, the burden will be greatly reduced, and there will basically be no burden on major enterprises. "After taking a look at Arthur and making sure that Arthur did not show any dissatisfaction, Kailo Jefferson continued to speak confidently and boldly:"

The second situation is some colonies with a large number of local residents. In this case, the proportion of funds borne by the enterprise will be reduced to a certain extent, which will be around 15%.

The cabinet government bears 70%, and the remaining 15% is borne by local state and municipal governments.

In this way, our free education policy can be extended to more remote and impoverished areas, benefiting every Australasian as much as possible. "Minister Kailo introduced.

Arthur nodded, quite agreeing with this plan.

Letting enterprises bear part of education is actually very promising. After all, part of the education problem is that employees in companies and factories work in faraway places and are forced to be separated from their families.

However, if such a policy is enacted, there are still some problems that must be guarded against, such as some companies shifting the burden of funds to their employees and workers.

Such examples have not happened before, and they must be prevented. After all, the purpose of free education is to enable more children of poor civilians to afford school, not to increase the burden on civilians.

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