The Bofill Foundation proposes funding that prioritizes schools with greater complexity

One of the most repeated complaints from the world of education is the lack of means and of investment. And one of the objectives of the Catalan educational system is the equity. Added to this is how that investment is distributed according to schools. Currently, the financing is linear: each center has an economic endowment that takes “little account” of its complexity social and territorial. In the opinion of the Bofill Foundation, an entity involved in the educational transformation, this model is a “brake on equity”, therefore it raises an alternative: the model of “formula financing”, which has released this Thursday.

The application of this model, they point out, would suppose a “radical change”. The call “equity formula” would allow concentrating the financial effort in those centers that have more vulnerable student body socially and educationally. These centers would receive more resources (teachers, professionals, materials & mldr ;.) to guarantee the equality educational.

With the current model, public centers with vulnerable students they only receive 800 euros more per student than schools without any complexity. An amount that the Bofill Foundation considers “insufficient” to guarantee the educational needs of these students. With the new formula, a highly complex primary school would go from receiving 5,246 euros per student / year to 6,860 euros.

This new financing model, prepared and developed by Marcel Pagès and Miquel Àngel Alegre, It is specified in an algebraic expression that takes into account the size, complexity and ownership of the center, the educational stage, the teaching and support staff and the number of students with specific educational needs and / or with a low level of skills.

A typical case: increase of 697,460 euros per year

To focus the issue, the Bofill gives the example of an ESO center with very high complexity, 468 students, 99 students with specific educational needs and 102 with low performance. The equity formula would allow this center to increase its annual budget by 697,460 euros. An injection of resources that, according to the Bofill Foundation, is important enough to “improve results and educational opportunities for students.” He assures that this extra amount “would allow the center to incorporate a teacher for every two classes (which could also reduce ratios, but also dedicate to co-teaching, flexible groups, reinforcing the guidance team, or individual tutoring tasks), a teacher host classroom (which guarantees the good integration of foreign students), an inclusive education specialist, eight social educators (two for each ESO course) and two social integration technicians (one per cycle), who could provide educational support non-school, socio-emotional accompaniment, working with families or coordinating with external services “.

The application of this new financing system without any center losing resources would mean an increase of 15% in budget current, which is 643 million. The Bofill proposes that the extraordinary investment that the Government dedicated to education due to the pandemic (570 million) is maintained and is now destined to pay for this project, applying the new formula of redistribution of resources. “We ask to keep the 570 million extraordinary of the covid-19 and that it be destined to the centers with greater complexity & rdquor ;.

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They argue that most countries in the OECD They already have similar formulas for financing schools that include factors such as the social and educational complexity of the center and over-financing of the most disadvantaged. This is the case in countries such as Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom or Canada.

The Bofill Foundation urges to move forward in this way, taking into account the “foreseeable worsening economic and social conditions of an already disadvantaged part of the population & rdquor ;. “There is an urgent need for a fairer distribution of resources that prioritizes those schools and institutes where it is most needed”, they underline. They consider it feasible to apply the formula if the increase in resources derived from the covid is taken advantage of. “It is necessary to maintain and consolidate them and adopt a financing by formula”, they insist.