Terms A-Z

The education budget displays the whole public and private expenditure on education. This includes personnel expenditure, operating expenditure and capital spending for the entire area of education (pre-primary education, out-of-school youth education, schools and institutions of higher education, continuing education). Depreciation, financing costs, hours lost due to continuing education of staff, training allowances and pensions for retired education staff are not included. Public spending under the Federal Training Assistance Act (BAföG), on retraining, transport for students etc. is substantiated within the framework of educational funding. The financial contribution of the central, regional and local authorities (Federal Government, Länder and municipalities) to the education budget can be viewed in two different ways – according to the concept of "initial funds" or the concept of "final funds". In the "initial funds" concept, the financial transactions between the central, regional and local authorities are taken into account. The concept of "final funds" does not take financial transactions between the central, regional and local authorities into consideration. The distinction between "initial funds" and "final funds" does not affect the total volume of public spending for the area of education. Nor do transactions between public budgets affect financial contributions from private sources, from abroad, or the total volume of the education budget.