| The new urbanization strategy in China emphasizes people’s life,and it is mainly reflected in the urbanization of rural-urban migrant workers,that is,rural-urban migrant workers and their families can settle down in cities and become registered households.However,due to the restrictions of education access policies in most cities,migrant children still cannot enjoy the same opportunities for compulsory education as local children.So far,most migrant children still face multiple difficulties in education,such as difficulties in enrolling in local public schools,heavy educational burden,integrating into school education,and entering local high schools.To properly solve the above problems of migrant children,the central government has promulgated a series of relevant education policies since 1992,mainly including "Two Oriented Policy”,“Two Included Policy”,and “Two Unified Policy”,and required all the local governments to solve issues of migrant children receiving compulsory education in local public schools.However,by 2022,most megacities and supercities still maintain a restrictive education access policy,and the education problems of migrant children have not been fully resolved.Under the goal of “Common Prosperity”,the education of migrant children is directly related to the vital welfare of 286 million rural-urban migrant workers,and the development of the long-term human capital level,which is of great significance.Therefore,it is necessary to clarify the relationship between the educational predicament of migrant children and the educational access policy,deeply analyze the reasons for the problems of education access,and explore the substantial impact of education access policies on the individual human capital investment.The abovementioned aspects are also the main contents that this dissertation attempts to study.Existing literature has carried out a lot of investigation on the education of migrant children in China,which provides a good research foundation.However,most of the existing studies on the education access policies for migrant children are only theoretically discuss its fairness and possible social impacts,lacking empirical research.In addition,research on the impact of education access policies on the human capital investment of migrant children is still very limited.Therefore,this study attempts to comprehensively and systematically examine the impact of education access policies on various human capital investment behaviors or decisions of migrant children both from the theoretical and empirical levels.Specifically,the research focuses on the education access policy,follows the technical route of "reality analysis-theoretical analysis-empirical analysis-policy optimization".Moreover,this study conducts theoretical and empirical research on the human capital investment in different periods,including “before migrating”,“in compulsory education”,and “after graduation from junior high school”.In the part of theoretical analysis,the study builds the child migration model,educational investment model,education participation decision model,education cost and enrollment rate model,and sorts out the educational policy texts related to migrant children in various cities of China.Combining the data from macro and micro aspects,the study deeply analyzes the origin of education access policy and its relationship with various educational difficulties.In the part of empirical analysis,the research mainly uses the data of China Migrants Dynamic Survey(CMDS),China Education Panel Survey(CEPS)to examine the impacts of education access policies on various human capital investment behaviors,such as migration of children,education expenditure,education participation,and choice of high school education.The study came to the following conclusions:(1)In general,the compulsory education enrollment policies of various provinces have gradually become more friendly to migrant children.However,judging from the policies of megacities and supercities in 2022,only the four cities of Chongqing,Wuhan,Shenyang,and Harbin have relatively friendly enrollment policies for migrant children,which only require “three certificates”(Hukou book,residence permit,employment certificate)to enroll.The remaining 17 megacities(or supercities)still have restrictive education access policies.(2)On the surface,the problem of education access for migrant children is an issue of unequal educational opportunities,that is,the migrant children are restricted by the education policies in cities and cannot enjoy the same educational opportunities as local school-age children.In essence,the problem is the contradiction between urban education public services and the educational needs of migrant children under the Hukou system.The root of the problem is the limitation of the financial supply of compulsory education.Under the district-based(or county)education financial investment system,affected by their own development goals and financial constraints,the enthusiasm of local governments in education financial investment will be limited,and then different levels of education access thresholds will be set to control the number of migrant children enrolled.(3)The increase of urban compulsory education threshold(CET)will significantly inhibit the decision of rural-urban migrant workers’ children to move with them,making their children forced to stay in their hometowns.This effect is more significant for girls and non-only children.The above results also confirm that the CET in megacities(or supercities)impedes the family migration of rural-urban migrant workers,hinders their process of urbanization,and may also cause frequent population flow and return.(4)Families’ non-understanding of Immigration High School Entrance Examination(IHSEE)policy,and excessive policy restrictions will directly increase the current education cost and the uncertainty of expected educational benefits,and reduce the net educational benefits and educational expectation for migrant children and their families.The above effects further inhibited various human capital investment behaviors,such as tutoring expenditures,parents’ educational participation,and children’s educational participation.In general,the restrictions of IHSEE have significantly inhibited the human capital investment in migrant children,and further exacerbated the inequality of educational opportunities between migrant children and urban students.(5)The negative effect of the ISHEE on tutoring expenditures,educational participation is more significant in the "relatively disadvantaged" groups such as migrant girls,non-only children,children with low cognitive ability,and poor students.In addition,policy restrictions also significantly increase the intentions of non-onlychild and low-cognitive students to give up high school education.On the whole,ISHEE has deepened the educational inequity within the group of migrant children,making the "relatively disadvantaged" children even more vulnerable in the allocation of family education resources.(6)The restrictions of ISHEE increase the family’s intentions to let their migrant children give up high school education,leave the local area,or apply for vocational schools after graduating from junior high school.In terms of macro impact,the restrictions of ISHEE are likely to hinder the popularization of senior high school education,and exacerbate the return migration and premature education diversion of migrant children.Based on the main conclusions,the following policy suggestions are put forward:First,expand the supply of urban compulsory education resources.Second,improve the mechanism of education financial apportionment,and promote "Finance Goes with Children" and "Provincial Overall Planning" policies.Third,moderately reduce the degree of restriction of urban education access policies,and properly solve the problem of school enrollment and further education for migrant children.Fourth,the education department of local governments and schools should strengthen the communication of ISHEE policy,increasing the awareness of the floating population on this policy.Fifth,pay more attention to the issue of educational inequity within the group of migrant children,and ensure the education rights of migrant girls,non-only children,children with low cognitive ability,and poor students.Finally,focus on the urban education access policy to promote the construction of new urbanization. |
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