Regional decentralization on public expenditure in education in Spain

This article has a double aim: to study the process of decentralization of public expenditure on education happened in Spain and its justification from the perspective of the theory of the Fiscal Federalism; and to analyze public expenditure on education in Spanish regions after the ending of this process to contrast and to explain the existing diff erences among regions. Therefore, beginning from the theoretical bases of the Fiscal Federalism that justify the decentralization of the public expenditure in education, the important diff erences are verifi ed in the presentation and the level of educational public expenditure by Spanish regions. As for the methodology, there is used as base the public expenditure on education really realized by all the Public Administrations (State, Regional Governments and Local Governments). In consequence, this article presents evidence about the evolution of the educational public expenditure in the last years, in which it has passed from a centralized model to a new model in which most of this expenditure is spent by the regional governments.