Equity vs. Equality Debate on Public Spending for Higher Education in the United States

Alvin Chang1, Yong-Shun Lin2, Chih-Yang Chao3

Abstract: This research addresses an issue about funding for higher education in the modern United States. Ideally, to reduce financial pressures for the young adults, the government should either raise financial aids or educational spending. Yet, the decision between financial aid and educational spending is an “equity versus equality” debate, since financial aids are funds to low income students, whereas educational spending will benefit every student. With limited resources, the federal government should efficiently apply its funds to satisfy the public interest. To explore the public interest on education policy, this research will analyze opinions reported in the American National Election Study. Since the policy emphasizes on public spending, the study about opinions is based on income differences. The main research is about which of the two policy goals, aids to the poor for equitable education or equally affordable tuition to all students, and is preferred by Americans in different incomes. The research tool is chi-square statistical test, since the variables (income quintile as independent variable, preferences on public school spending and on aiding poor as dependent variables, employment status and education level as confounding variables) are ordinal. According to the chi-square tests for the relationships between independent and dependent variables, both relationships are significant (< 0.05), which indicates a rejection of null hypotheses (H0) for both relationships. With the addition of both confounding variables, employment and education, the proportion of preference on public school spending is higher than the proportion of preference on aiding poor. Comparing the two relationships, the study is confident to emphasize on public school funding.

Key words: public administration, equality in education, social equity, education policy