The sustainable human capital development and financing of education in Europe and Ukraine

Human capital is a key to unlocking a child’s potential and to improving economic growth in every country. But the COVID-19 pandemic threatens hard-won gains in health and education over the past decade, especially in the developing countries. The research is devoted to the analysis of the European experience of financing education for sustainable human capital development and provides practical recommendations for implementing tools for financing education for sustainable human capital development in Ukraine. In order to achieve the stated purpose theoretical bases, legislative and regulatory official documents were analyzed. The main problematic areas are: participation of adults in learning; the share of employed graduates; the low level average expenditure per pupil/student and others. The review shows that the most perspective approaches to financing education for sustainable human capital development are partnership of governments, local authorities, educational, business and household institutions; reform the mechanism of education funding. As a result, the roles of the EU and international organizations in the development of mechanisms and tools for financing education at all levels by different groups of actors have been identified. The objective need for cooperation of international organizations, state institutions, economic entities and human capital carriers to finance quality and affordable education is substantiated. The results of the study can be used in governance models. The study actualizes the value of human capital development and financing of education, and proves their impact on the sustainable growth.

Students’ Mathematics Academic Performance: An Interaction of Inputs from the Students, Schools, and Voters

This study proposes and tests a model affecting students’ mathematical academic performance in public schools. We postulate that students’ mathematical academic performance depends on the interaction of key factors associated with students, the schools, and the voters. The model incorporates variables such as the attendance rate, social and economic background of parents of the students, marital status of parents, expenditure per pupil that voters are willing to invest, proportion of school expenditure from local sources, and quality of teachers. Academic performance of students is measured by the percentage of the total number of students passing the mathematics part of the proficiency test. The three simultaneous-equations model is estimated by using data for 576 Ohio school districts. Our analysis suggests that an increased expenditure on education would improve the mathematics skills of the students. However, money alone is not sufficient. Our study implies that, along with the increased investment in education, a number of other socioeconomic variables need attention. For example, an increase in the attendance rate of students can bring a substantial improvement in the academic performance of students. An improvement in attendance rate requires reduction in poverty and an increase in the percentage of two-parent families.

Using Available Evidence to Estimate the Cost of Educational Adequacy

This article seeks to move the adequacy issue forward by demonstrating that under a certain set of assumptions, it is possible to provide a set of programmatic offerings that corresponds well with what we consider to be an emerging, research-based consensus about what constitutes best practices. We do this by showing what could be purchased with the national average expenditure per pupil if it were to be applied to one adequacy approach, the evidence-based approach, and how these resources have been linked to increases in student performance.

Students' Academic Performance: An Interaction of Inputs from the Students, Schools, and Voters

This study proposes and tests a model affecting students' academic performance. We postulate that students' academic performance depends on the interaction of key factors associated with students, the schools, and the voters. The model incorporates variables such as the attendance rate, social and economic background of parents of the students, marital status of parents, expenditure per pupil that voters are willing to invest, proportion of school expenditure from local sources, and quality of teachers. Academic performance of students is measured by the percentage of total number of students passing all four parts of the proficiency test. The simultaneous-equations model is estimated by using data for 576 Ohio school districts. Our analysis suggests that an increased expenditure on education would improve the academic performance of the students. However, money alone is not sufficient. Our study implies that, along with the increased investment in education, a number of other socioeconomic variables need to be paid attention to. For example, an increase in the attendance rate of students can bring a substantial improvement in the academic performance of students. An improvement in attendance rate requires reduction in poverty and an increase in the percentage of families having two parents.