Belize’s Formula for Financial Equity in Secondary Education

April 2018- Gustavo Arcia & Emma Naslund-Hadley

The objective of this analysis is to examine the impact of Belize’s funding formula for secondary education. For years, the Government of Belize gave grants to public schools to pay for salaries and operating costs. Church-sponsored private schools, commonly referred to as Denominational schools, received grants that paid for 70 percent of salaries and 30 percent of operating costs (SANIGEST 2010), while Government schools had its payroll covered directly by the government and received a small grant for operational expenditures. This policy led to a funding system that became unequal over the years, as schools located in urban areas and serving higher-income families received up to four times as much funding as schools located in small rural communities. Fixing this inequality became a key policy objective for the Government, initiating a financial reform and the design and implementation of a new funding formula.

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