Abstracts Category : Other

It is Expensive to be Poor: Equity in Financing Education in Turkey (2004-2012)

by Elene Murvanidze

Turkish government, under the rule of Justice and Development Party (Turkish: Adalet ve Kalknma Partisi, AKP), (2002-2017) has conducted many educational reforms. Different researchers have evaluated effectiveness of those policies differently. Some claim that policies result in a more inclusive and diverse educational system, others argue that the reforms would rekindle child labor, increase child brides and condemn girls to illiteracy. In our research we measure the effects of educational reforms on equity in financing education (i.e., out-of-pocket expenditures). After estimating Gini, Concentration and Kakwani indices, and graphing Lorenz and Concentration curves, we find out that education financing in Turkey is regressive. Since the year of 2004 there have been no significant improvements: neither in the income equality levels, nor in the distribution of education financing. The poorest quintiles have the highest shares of education expenditure, and the high school education is the most inequitable. Our results conflict with the claim that Turkey became more accessible to poor and the education policies have decreased the inequality. Advisors/Committee Members: Yavuz Yaar, Ph.D..