Effectiveness of public educational financing in the context of the sustainable development goals: A research on Turkey's educational expenditures

Sustainability is a general approach to struggling with climate change and other environmental and social problems. Sustainable development is a development approach that aims to meet economic requirements without harming the environment and future generations' rights. To achieve sustainable development, it is need to significant improvements in economic, social and political areas. In 2015, UN published "Sustainable Development Goals" and determined the required actions in 17 different areas, to build a sustainable future. One of the Sustainable Development Goals is "Quality Education", which includes 10 targets to be achieved by 2030. In order to achieve the goals of Quality Education, it is necessary to provide the adequate financial resources for education. In Turkiye, as in many different countries, the main source of education financing is the funds provided by the public. Public educational funds provided mainly by budget of Ministry of National Education. However, in order to achieve quality education goals, it is necessary to use these resources efficiently. Purpose of this research is analyse the efficiency of the financial resources provided by the public for education in Turkiye in achieving the objectives of "UN - Sustainable Development Goals - Quality Education". For this purpose, education, educational expenditure and macroeconomic data (1989-2020) were analysed by using the three-stage least squares method. The analysis results show that there is a positive relationship between education expenditures and per capita income, schooling rates and the quality of education. In other words, it is found that public education expenditures in Turkiye are efficient in achieving Quality Education goals. On the other hand, analysis results also show that there is a strong decreasing tendency in national income and education expenditure levels. This result is a sign that education expenditure efficiency may be vanished, unless sufficient resources are provided by public authorities in the upcoming periods.