All education systems rely on financing to function, but the characteristics and actions of a successful school finance system are not always clear. Research has often failed to find a strong relationship between spending and learning outcomes in education, which leads some researchers and policy makers to question whether the amount of spending in education matters at all (Hanushek 1986). Among countries with similar levels of income, those that spend more on education do not necessarily score higher on international assessments such as the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). Even within an education system, student achievement can vary substantially among localities that spend comparable amounts (Wagstaff and Wang 2011). The observation that learning outcomes are seemingly unrelated to spending levels supports the argument that how money is spent, not simply how much, matters in education finance. The six policy goals includes the following headings: ensuring basic conditions for learning
monitoring learning conditions and outcomes
overseeing service delivery
budgeting with adequate and transparent information
providing more resources to students who need them
and managing resources efficiently.