With the major role being played by the local government units (LGUs) in enhancing the quality of public school education, an improvement in the LGUs own revenue collections to fund local education expenditures is crucial.
Sadly, 7 in every10 provinces collect low local revenues to spend for education services. But for the people of Bataan, it is good to know that among the 80 provinces, our Province topped the estimated available Special Education Fund (SEF) revenue per public school student. With an estimated SEF Collection of Php 420,399,546 M for 2013, and a total of 133, 345 public school enrollees of the same year, an estimated Php 3,153.00 in SEF revenue is available per public school student. Batangas comes second to Bataan while Basilan landed at the bottom.
In collecting real property tax, LGUs are mandated by the Local Government Code to impose an additional 1% levy as Special Education Fund to fund the operations and maintenance of public schools, construction and repair of school buildings, facilities and equipment, educational research, purchase of books, and sports development.
The SEF is automatically released to the Local School Board (LSB) of every LGU. The additional 1% levy is based on the Schedule of Market Values (SMV) of the LGU, which is required by law to be updated once every three years.
This achievement, as it assures the students of a better quality of education also inspires and poses a challenge to the Provincial Government of Bataan and its constituents to continue a job well done.
