The Reproduction of “Disparity” under the Appearance of “Equity”: The Impact of Financial Investment in After-school Services under the “Double Reduction” Policy on Regional Educational Equity in Zhejiang Province

Abstract

With the implementation of the “Double Reduction” policy, after-school services have gradually been integrated into the compulsory education system. The panel data of the 11 prefectural cities in Zhejiang Province from 2020 to 2023 are used in this paper; per-student public expenditure is taken as the main index, variance coefficients are employed to address regional differences, and goodness-of-fit indicators (R²) are used to determine how well local financial capacity and fiscal effort explain the fluctuations in per-student funding. Based on the above analysis, it can be seen that after the implementation of the policy, Zhejiang's spending on compulsory education after-school services has increased steadily, and the relative difference between regions has been reduced. As the power of local financial capacity has increased, so too has the per-student funding due to capital accumulation. Fiscal efforts have had weak explanatory power; therefore, it can be concluded that the funding difference is due to objective financial constraints and not to any subjective reasons. Therefore, it is proposed that a provincial-level precise transfer payment system be built to strengthen the accountability mechanism and advance the goal of educational fairness across the country.