Performance-Based Financing of Kindergartens: Bulgaria

Abstract

The goal of this chapter is to evaluate the system of performance-based financing of kindergartens in Bulgaria. The state allocates large sums of money for this level of preschool education and distributes the money to municipalities on the basis of a formula. In this way, ‘student vouchers’ are officially used to finance municipal kindergartens, with the hypothetical potential of encouraging improvements in quality. In reality, the system is far from being performance-based—municipalities simply cover all the remaining costs of their kindergartens to balance the institutional budgets, independent of performance.