Revising the Regulations for the Implementation of the Private Education Promotion Law Private schools must take public welfare as their original intention
Don't let "educators" become "businessmen"
● The participation of public schools in the investment and profit distribution of private schools has turned a large number of "educators" into "businessmen"; the absorption of private funds to participate in private school cooperation in public schools has turned many "businessmen" into "educators"
● The newly revised Regulations for the Implementation of the Private Education Promotion Law’s "prohibition of employment" for private education sponsors is an entry point to fundamentally reverse the chaos of private education
● As a form of education in our country, private education must not deviate from the purpose of “providing people’s satisfaction education”. No matter what level or type of education the private school is at, there is no exception.
□ Our reporter Wang Yang
□ Trainee reporter Zhang Shoukun
Recently, the revised "Regulations for the Implementation of the Private Education Promotion Law of the People's Republic of China" (hereinafter referred to as the "Implementation Regulations") was promulgated and will come into force on September 1, 2021.
The newly revised "Implementation Regulations" have systematically revised, supplemented and improved the existing regulations.
Statistics show that private education has become an important part of education.
In 2020, there will be a total of 186,700 private schools nationwide, accounting for more than one-third of the total number of schools at all levels and types in the country; there are 55,644,500 students in schools, accounting for nearly one-fifth.
Experts interviewed by a reporter from the "Rules of Law Daily" interpreted that the "Implementation Regulations" emphasized strengthening the party's leadership, adhering to the principle of public welfare, implementing classified management, and providing full support for private schools with their own characteristics while regulating school behavior.
The regulations in the "Implementation Regulations" that local governments must not use state-owned enterprises and public educational resources to run or participate in the establishment of private schools that implement compulsory education have become the key and standardized form of school running in the "Implementation Regulations."
Private education is booming
Private capital poured in
Private education is also known as "social forces-run schools."
Our private education has a long history and a long tradition of private education.
The "Confucius Lectures" more than two thousand years ago, the "Jixia Academy" in the Warring States Period, and the academies in the Southern Song Dynasty played an irreplaceable role in inheriting the excellent traditional culture of the Chinese nation.
After the founding of New China, social forces once disappeared.
It was not until the early 1980s when the government encouraged "public assistance" and "private office assistance" that private education gradually emerged.
With the deepening of reform and opening up, educational institutions run by social forces have extended from higher education to middle schools and kindergartens. Private education has flourished, private capital has poured in, and a large number of "public participation and private" schools have emerged.
The characteristic of "public participation and private" schools is to use the popularity and teaching resources of public schools to provide private education, that is, the so-called "prestigious schools run private schools."
At the beginning of the development of "prestigious schools running private schools" and "public participation by the people", private capital played an active role in broadening the sources of educational funding, gathering more and better educational resources, and improving the educational layout.
On July 31, 1997, the State Council promulgated the "Regulations on Running Schools by Social Forces."
The most interesting clause of the regulations is Article 6: “Social forces shall not run educational institutions for profit-making purposes.”
Therefore, in the legal environment where education "must not be profit-making", most private schools practice "profit-making" in the name of "non-profit".
This provision has also become a bottleneck restricting the financing of private education.
Whether private education should be mentioned as "not for profit" has been the focus of controversy in the legislation for a long time.
In the 20 years of development, private education has experienced a process from chaos to governance, but some problems have intensified.
For example, publishing false information in order to compete for the source of students, students cannot be refunded as promised by the school once enrolled, and the quality of teaching is difficult to guarantee.
After the promulgation of the Private Education Promotion Law in 2002, my country's private education entered a stage of rapid development.
The Private Education Promotion Law proposes to "actively encourage, vigorously support, correctly guide, and manage according to the law" for private education, and no longer mentions "not for profit", and clarifies the vague understanding of restricting the development of private education.
Education has become a profit-seeking industry
The negative impact should not be underestimated
A reporter from the Rule of Law Daily learned that one of the characteristics of this round of educational industrialization is the in-depth integration of prestigious schools and the real estate market. The most visible phenomenon is the expansion of super middle schools.
Hengshui Middle School has set up 23 schools across the country, basically cooperating with real estate or large enterprises, and running education has become a money-making business.
In recent years, real estate giants such as Vanke, Evergrande, and Country Garden have entered the education field on a large scale and set up aristocratic schools.
Bright Scholar Education Holdings Co., Ltd. operated by Country Garden has 64 chain schools in 8 provinces, including 6 international schools, 16 bilingual schools, and 42 kindergartens.
An education expert in Beijing who did not want to be named believes that the impact of a large amount of capital entering and seeking to control the education industry is obvious.
The high-paying employment of the Capital Group has brought about the rapid concentration of educational resources, which are provided to a very small number of wealthy people.
The high fees of aristocratic schools have driven the prices of other schools to rise, which has induced general anxiety among parents in the face of competition, and they have to increase investment in education.
Finally, the industrialization of education indirectly led to the increase in education expenditures of most households.
On April 1, 2004, the implementation regulations of the Private Education Promotion Law came into effect.
The regulations stipulate that if the investor obtains a reasonable return in accordance with the provisions of the private school charter, it may receive a certain percentage of the return from the school balance of the private school at the end of each fiscal year.
Ye Xiaohua, the legal representative of Wuhan Jingkai Foreign Language School, told the reporter of Rule of Law Daily that whether it is public or private education, it is necessary to pay attention to cost accounting and input-output.
Therefore, education cannot be developed regardless of economic laws.
At the same time, any economic behavior that violates the laws of education, or the pursuit of maximum economic benefits regardless of the characteristics of the education industry, or the viewpoint that only market selection does not emphasize fairness and protection of the educational interests of disadvantaged groups are all distortions. The essential meaning of the development of the education industry.
Hu Gongqun, a legislative consultant for the Standing Committee of the Beijing Municipal People’s Congress, believes that the over-concentration of high-quality educational resources, the formation of new educational injustices, and the intensification of social education anxiety are only visible results.
The bigger problem is that public schools participate in the investment and profit distribution of private schools, turning a large number of "educators" into "businessmen"; attracting private funds to participate in private school cooperation in public schools has also brought many "businessmen" Become an "Educator".
The excessive integration of "educators" and "businessmen" has gradually replaced the nature of public welfare in the interest orientation of private schools in the process of running a school, making the initial aspirations of the establishment, the educational process and the final evaluation of educational results more close to economic interests , The negative erosion of the entire education cause cannot be underestimated.
Continuous improvement of laws and regulations
Classified Management of Private Education
While private education is advancing rapidly, issues such as legal person attributes, ownership of property rights, and supporting policies have become obstacles to its healthy development.
Li Xiaoyan, a professor at the School of Education of Central China Normal University, told the reporter of the Rule of Law Daily that the Education Law, which has been revised and implemented since June 1, 2016, stipulates that schools and other educational institutions that are organized or participated in the organization with financial funds, donated assets shall not be established for profit organization.
In other words, schools and other educational institutions that are not organized with financial funds or donated assets or participate in the organization can be established as profit-making organizations.
"So far, legal barriers to education must not be profitable have been removed."
In November 2016, the revision of the Private Education Promotion Law was completed.
The "profit and non-profit" classification reform was implemented in September 2017.
On April 20, 2018, the Ministry of Education publicly solicited opinions on the "Regulations on the Implementation of the Private Education Promotion Law of the People's Republic of China (Revised Draft)".
The revised draft once again emphasizes that “public schools that implement compulsory education shall not be converted into private schools”, “existing private schools are allowed to change their sponsors, and they can agree to change the income under the premise that they are not profit-making; the sponsors and privately-run schools are allowed "Schools conduct legal related transactions" and at the same time clarify support policies. On the basis of general support, non-profit private schools will be further favored. It is stipulated that subsidies per student and allocated land supply are only applicable to non-profit schools.
On February 22, 2019, the Ministry of Education issued the "Key Points of Work in 2019", one of which was to promote the revision and promulgation of the "Regulations on the Implementation of the Private Education Promotion Law of the People's Republic of China."
Hu Jian, Associate Professor of the Law Department of Anhui University of Finance and Economics, believes that from the revision of the Private Education Promotion Law to the "Several Opinions of the State Council on Encouraging Social Forces to Establish Education and Promoting the Healthy Development of Private Education", the Ministry of Education and other five departments on the implementation of the "Classified Registration of Private Schools" The promulgation of the “Detailed Rules” and the “Detailed Rules for the Implementation of the Supervision and Management of For-profit Private Schools” marked the entry of a new era of classified management, standardized promotion, and connotative development as the main characteristics of private education in my country.
There are many highlights in the implementation regulations
Educational chaos needs to be eradicated urgently
On July 8, 2020, the General Office of the State Council issued a notice on the State Council’s 2020 Legislative Work Plan, and announced the “State Council’s 2020 Legislative Work Plan”, which included amendments to the implementation regulations of the Private Education Promotion Law.
On May 14, 2021, the revised Implementation Regulations of the Private Education Promotion Law was announced and will come into force on September 1, 2021.
The interviewed experts believe that the biggest highlight of the "Implementation Regulations" is to emphasize that private education should also adhere to the principle of public welfare.
Article 4 of the "Implementation Regulations" stipulates that "adhere to the direction of socialist education and adhere to the public welfare of education", that is, private education, as a form of education in our country, must not deviate from the purpose of "providing people's satisfaction education", regardless of whether it is a private school. What kind of education the school is at is no exception.
According to Wang Daquan, deputy director of the Policy and Regulations Department of the Ministry of Education, the sponsors, actual controllers, heads of decision-making bodies, principals and other subjects of private schools have an important influence on the operation and management of private schools.
In fact, their behavior will directly affect the image and reputation of private education and even the entire education system.
Are they real "educators" or "businessmen", and whether they do education or business is directly related to the health of private education and the education system.
The "Implementation Regulations" on the "prohibition of employment" for private education sponsors is an entry point to fundamentally reverse the chaos of private education.
A reporter from the Rule of Law Daily saw that the “Implementation Regulations” deleted the relevant clauses of “reasonable returns”, clarified the differentiated support measures for non-profit and for-profit private schools in various aspects, and focused on helping “high school quality and distinctive characteristics. , The private schools with significant social benefits, determine the differentiated support measures for non-profit and for-profit private schools in terms of finance, taxation, land use, and finance, and clarify that priority is given to private schools with high school quality, distinctive features, and significant social benefits. School orientation.
The "Implementation Regulations" also "restricted areas" and other methods to "red light" the over-capitalization and commercialization of current private education in certain areas.
Guo Zeqiang, a professor at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, analyzed that the "Implementation Regulations" strengthened industry supervision against disorderly competition and illegal school running, and it is a protection and support for private education.
The protection of the legitimate interests of scholars is the proper meaning of the construction of a legal environment for private education; the protection of the enthusiasm of scholars is the government's best investment in the future of education development.
The revision of the "Implementation Regulations" has released a very strong signal that the legal policies of private education can only develop in a direction that is more beneficial to the interests of the people.
In many places, the "prestigious schools run private schools" has been regarded as a "good recipe" for rapid expansion of high-quality educational resources.
According to media reports, many developers have established branch schools of publicly-run schools in the community where the real estate is located in order to sell real estate.
Wu Shenkuo, associate professor of Beijing Normal University, believes that this school-running model has brought a greater negative impact on the education ecology.
"It dilutes the brand resources of public schools themselves and aggravates educational anxiety, which has led to many social problems. At the same time, private schools organized by public schools use the high-quality brands of public schools, but adopt the charging standards of private schools. No matter what. Whether it has caused unfair competition for public schools or private schools, and disrupted the normal order of education."
Wu Shenkuo said that the "Implementation Regulations" stipulate that public schools shall not use state financial funds to organize or participate in the establishment of private schools, shall not affect the teaching activities of public schools, and shall not participate in running schools only in the form of brand output, and shall be approved by their competent authorities.
Public schools that organize or participate in the establishment of non-profit private schools shall not obtain school-running income through management fees or other means or in disguised form.
"This regulation breaks the explicit or implicit interest chain between public and private in the system, plays a vital role in maintaining the normal order of running schools, and also provides a legal basis for local education governance to follow."
In addition, in order to restrict some illegal education managers from reselling state-owned educational assets in disguise, the "Implementation Regulations" also added provisions to improve the sponsor change mechanism: if the sponsor of a private school changes, a change agreement shall be signed, but the school’s legal person property shall not be involved. , Shall not affect the development of the school, shall not damage the rights and interests of teachers and students; if the sponsor of an existing private school is changed, the income can be changed in accordance with the legal rights and interests enjoyed by the law and the successor sponsor.
Huang Min, principal of Wuhan Jingkai Foreign Language School, told the reporter of Rule of Law Daily that before this regulation was promulgated, many developers set up private schools in the community where the real estate is located in order to sell real estate, and some famous schools also set up private schools for various reasons. Destroyed the local education ecology.
What's more, in some places, after the developers have sold out the real estate, they will give the new school to the local education bureau.
"In the system design, the "Implementation Regulations" added provisions to improve the sponsor change mechanism, which avoided the misunderstanding of running schools for local governments and scholars."
Cartography/Gao Yue