Why fund education?

Education funding (getty images).

This entry considers why governments fund education as it is the fifth question posed by the course What future for education? 

I think not every government funds education thinking about its quality or at least caring about its people. I believe some of them are just considering it as a spending rather than an investment, and consequently much of this funding is not used properly. Governments should consider education as an investment and raise its fundings; however, at least in some countries, that is not the case.

In the other hand, there are great examples of governments that fund education which seem to understand its importance. In Spain, for example, public education is considered better than private education. There are not many private schools and they are not considered good, at least for what I have heard. In my country, Ecuador, it is the other way around: public schools strive to offer at least basic education, while private schools are everywhere. There is no real standard and education becomes a commodity, rather than a right. That, of course, have bad consequences, because our society stands in inequality from the beginning, making it very difficult to improve our life quality.