This study looks into how various policy groups perceive the effectiveness of central government policies carried out in 2009 to expand and stabilize local education finance for the purpose of raising the quality of primary and secondary education and increasing educational welfare for pre-primary and special education students. In a comparative method, this study reviews how policy making groups, policy related groups and policy beneficiary groups assess the effectiveness of central government policies for local education finance.
Analysis results reveal that first, a significant difference exists between the perception of policy making groups and policy related groups. In particular, while policy making groups place importance on the policy outcome variable of sufficient financial resources, policy related groups place more weight on the equity of financial distribution and the degree of intention to bear financial burdens. The assumption for policy beneficiary groups was that they would prioritize the feasibility of financial expansion, but the analysis results were dismissed.
Second, upon analyzing government measures to achieve the 2009 policy goal of expanding and stabilizing local education finance, among measures that show significant difference of group perception, 'expanding funds transferred from local governments,' 'improving standards for the provision of local education subsidy' and 'merging declining urban schools and small-scale schools at agricultural and fishing villages' were perceived as the most effective by policy beneficiary groups. In clear contrast, 'continuing school facility establishment(constructing and refurbishing school buildings) in the BTL-method' was identified as the most effective measure by policy related groups. A significant between-group difference was also found in their perception of each individual measure. Regarding the feasibility of policy implementation, policy beneficiary groups had the most positive view, followed by policy making groups and policy related groups, regarding the feasibility of 'revising the Local Education Finance Act(raising the grant rate of internal tax)' and 'expanding funds transferred from local governments(legally and non-legally transferred funds).' The between-group difference was statistically significant.
Drawing from the results, this study presents logical grounds to assert that when evaluating the performance of policy groups, each group's policy goals and methods should be taken into consideration, since there exists a clear difference of viewpoints on local education finance between different policy groups.