Page 9 - Azerbaijan State University of Economics

Dana Ondrušková , Richard Pospíšil: A Comparative Study of Teacher’s Salary Formula
Methods, Case of Regional School Funding

BASIC FACTS OF SCHOOL FUNDING IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

Education funding in the Czech Republic is decentralised. The central government
budget is the main source of funding for public education in the Czech Republic
including both central (state) budget and local funding. Local governments are
responsible for various levels of education. Municipalities manage and finance basic
schools, while regions manage and finance secondary schools, both general
academic and vocational. Local governments play an important role in case of
secondary schools both in assuring the funding and influencing the distribution and
use of school resources. Common rules of funding secondary education in the Czech
Republic have undergone particular changes over last 5 years. In this period of time,
there are two major points to emphasize as far as the cash flows are concerned.
These changes include in the first place the total raise of volumes and secondly
structural changes. The new school funding reform was enacted in 2019 and
introduced in 2020, setting up new formula funding scheme model of financing
schools. In order to compare the two mechanisms, it is necessary to understand the
expenditures of schools.

All non-investment education expenditures of schools and education institutions in
the Czech Republic are divided into two categories: the direct costs and the
operational costs. Direct costs come from the central budget, and operational costs
are covered from the local budgets. Costs regulated by the state are direct costs and
include primarily salaries for teachers and non-teaching staff, textbooks, teaching
aids, further professional development of teachers and other expenditures resulting
from labour laws. In this way the state takes responsibility for the financing of those
educational functions, which are centrally regulated. The operational costs of
schools include maintenance of schools, energy expenditures, communal services,
small repairs. Operational costs of schools are financed from regional revenues; they
are not included in national or regional normative. The regions receive an education
grant from the central budget to finance the secondary schools under its managerial
control and allocate these funds to individual schools. Regions being the founders of
the secondary school are responsible for these operational costs.

SCHOOL BUDGETING

Theoretical framework

By a flexible budgeting process, we mean a process of establishing budgets of all
secondary schools managed by the region. Through the budget formulas the
authorities try to satisfy the different needs of schools within the context of limited
available budget funds.
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