The U.S. Education System

Multi-channel funding system.

The U.S. higher education has developed a multi-channel funding system. As a whole, the three major sources of funding for higher education are various types of appropriations from various levels of government, tuition and fees paid by students, and revenues from university services. Although in recent years the combined proportion of these three revenues to total funding has declined slightly, but still dominate.

Public education in the U.S. is a monopoly, and the lack of competition creates inefficiencies in the use of funds. Localities have introduced competition and reformed the system to give parents and students the full power to choose their schools. In order to attract more students, schools adopt a variety of methods and improve the efficiency of the use of education funds, so that the quality of education has been improved as a whole.

The main features of the U.S. higher education system:

1. The U.S. has a large number of colleges and universities with a variety of styles. A few colleges are extremely strict in selecting students, and most applicants do not make the final cut.

2, public institutions of higher learning are mainly funded and supervised by state governments. They seek to become independent, at least partially, from government oversight on the condition that they reduce direct state government aid.

3. As a result of generous outside donations, a handful of U.S. colleges and universities have been able to successfully accumulate substantial funds, bringing in sizable annual revenues to meet their operating expenses. Most other institutions of higher learning in the United States are not well-funded, with low faculty salaries, small libraries, and a variety of on-campus facilities that are not up to par.