英字新聞

The Yomiuri Shimbun (Dec. 8, 2009)
Dole-outs could widen educational disparities
高校無償化　低所得層への支援に転換せよ（12月8日付・読売社説）

The government has begun discussing whether to include an income-cap provision in its plan to make high school tuition effectively free, one of the main pillars of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan's manifesto for the last House of Representatives election.
　民主党が主要な政権公約に掲げた高校授業料の実質無償化について、政府は所得制限を設けるかどうか検討を始めた。

There is concern among some in education circles over the plan to make high school tuition free regardless of household income, with critics of the plan saying it could actually widen existing gaps in educational opportunity.
　所得に関係なく一律に無償化する方式には、教育関係者の間にも「教育格差を助長しかねない」と懸念する声がある。

Instead of earmarking the costs for the plan in the fiscal 2010 budget, the government should instead use the money to strengthen support for those in the low-income bracket and for other education-related projects.
来年度の予算計上は見送り、浮いた財源を低所得層への支援拡充や他の教育関連事業に活用すべきだ。

The plan for free high school education calls for providing households with 118,800 yen a year--equivalent to yearly public high school tuition--for each child they have at public or private high schools. As the tuition of private high schools is about three times the amount charged by public ones, a household with a yearly income of less than 5 million yen and with one or more private high school students will receive effectively double the amount in benefit that would be received by a household with one or more public high school students.
　無償化は、公立高校生のいる世帯に授業料相当の年１１万８８００円、私立高校生のいる世帯にも同額を助成する。私立は、授業料が公立の３倍のため、年収５００万円未満なら助成額を倍にする。

In next fiscal year's budget, about 450 billion yen has been earmarked for the plan to provide free high school education. About 12 billion yen was separately allocated to fund scholarships for low-income households.
　約４５００億円の予算を要求しており、これに関連し、低所得層向けの給付型奨学金として約１２０億円も盛り込まれた。

Senior Vice Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda has said he will consider setting income caps in implementing free high school education. For his part, Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Minister Tatsuo Kawabata proposes across-the-board free tuition but a reduction in the annual income tax deduction of up to 630,000 yen for families with children between the ages of 16 and 22.
　高校無償化について、野田佳彦財務副大臣は所得制限も念頭に置くことを表明した。これに対し、川端文部科学相らは、一律無償化と併せて、１６〜２２歳の扶養家族がいる世帯を対象に、課税所得から６３万円を差し引く特定扶養控除の縮小を提案している。

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Poor families to benefit little

Prefectural governments already exempt families on welfare and those in the low-income bracket from paying high school tuition. The tuition-waiver project covers a total of about 430,000 students--10 percent of public high school students and 18 percent of those at private schools.
　高校の授業料減免については、生活保護世帯やそれに準じる低所得層に都道府県が既に実施している。公立高校生の１０％、私立高校生１８％の計約４３万人が対象だ。

Low-income families will enjoy little new advantage from the government's plan to provide free high school education across the board. Upper-income households, however, could use the allowance to pay cram-school tuition for their children, which could widen existing education disparities.
　一律無償化では、低所得層には新たな恩恵がほとんどない。家計に余裕のある層は塾代に回すことができ、格差が開きかねない。

Households have to shoulder a heavy burden in academic expenses for high school students, including school tuition fees. According to an education ministry survey, families with a public high school student must spend more than 300,000 yen annually just on costs paid to their schools, including tuition fees, while those with a child going to a private high school must shell out about 800,000 yen.
　高校生の学費には、授業料以外にも負担が多い。文科省の調査では、授業料を含む学校教育費だけで、公立で年３０万円以上、私立では８０万円近くかかる。

The 12 billion yen earmarked to fund scholarships for children of low-income families targets households whose yearly income is 3.5 million yen or less. The scholarships are intended to pay admission fees and textbook costs. In the budget request for fiscal 2010 under the previous administration of former Prime Minister Taro Aso, about 45.5 billion yen was earmarked in scholarships to be used for wider purposes, including costs of school trips, school uniforms and school supplies.
　文科省が低所得層向けの給付型奨学金として計上した約１２０億円は、年収３５０万円以下の世帯を対象としたもので、入学金と教科書代のためだ。前政権下の概算要求では、修学旅行費や制服代、学用品費なども含め、４５５億円が盛り込まれていた。

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A wiser way to use budget

If the government were to expand eligibility for tuition waivers and increase the amount of money available for scholarships for low-income households, the bill would total less than half of the amount needed to make high school tuition free across the board. Using the available budget in this way would greatly alleviate burdens on poverty-stricken households.
　授業料減免の対象を広げ、低所得層向けの給付型奨学金を拡充するための予算を国が負担しても、無償化予算の半分もいらないはずだ。実際に困窮している世帯への負担軽減効果も大きいだろう。

In the 2008 academic year, 2,200 high school students were forced to drop out for financial reasons. The government should prioritize measures to prevent high school students from poor families dropping out and middle school students from such families not advancing to high school. The government should not adopt a dole-out policy for that purpose.
　昨年度、経済的理由で中退を余儀なくされた高校生は２２００人いた。こうした高校生や経済的理由で高校進学を断念する生徒をなくすことを優先すべきだ。ばらまきであってはならない。

High school tuition is free in the United States and many European countries, but Japan's education ministry does not seem to understand the actual situation in those countries sufficiently. The ministry should rethink its policy after investigating the circumstances in those countries.
　欧米諸国の多くは高校の授業料を無償化しているが、文科省は実情を十分把握していない。調査した上で、改めて検討すべきだ。

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Dec. 8, 2009)
（2009年12月8日01時47分 読売新聞）