بدائل مقترحة لتمويل التعليم العام في المملكة العربية السعودية في ضوء تجارب بعض الدول المتقدمة
This study aimed to identify the reality of financing public education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States of America, Finland, and Japan, and to get benefit from the experiences of these countries in presenting proposed alternatives for financing public education in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The study used a descriptive, analytical, and comparative approach. The study concluded that the comparison countries agreed on compulsory and free public education and that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia outperforms all countries in the percentage of education financing from the government budget. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Finland share a pattern of financing unilateral public education and its source is from the government, in addition to the presence of very limited private sources. As for the funding pattern in the United States of America and Japan, it is mixed and depends on public and private sources. The study also found several proposed alternatives to diversify public education financing, including imposing fees for additional services such as transportation and extra-curricular activities, reducing the centralization of funding and allowing schools to diversify their funding sources, and involving community institutions in supporting public education financing. The study made several recommendations, such as creating a section in education departments concerned with rationalizing educational expenditures, enabling schools to distribute their budgets as they see fit, allowing schools to diversify their funding sources, searching for the causes of educational waste, and trying to rationalize it. (Published abstract)