Another Source of Educational Funding

The State Council ordered local governments to plow 10 percent of profits from their land transfers into education spending, another step to meet the nation's goal of increasing educational budgets to four percent of the country's annual GDP starting in 2012, which was a target set in China's Mid- and Long-term Plan for Education Reform and Development (2010-2020). Data from the Ministry of Finance show that last year's revenues from land transfers nationwide exceeded RMB 2.91 trillion, of which RMB 1.34 trillion went to cover land expropriation, resident relocation and other costs. During the years from 2001 to 2010 China's annual public funding for education grew from RMB 270 billion to RMB 1.42 trillion, marking a year-on-year gain of 20.2 percent. Last year education became the largest spending item on the national fiscal budget, accounting for 15.8 percent of the total.