The Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (ULAP)¹, the umbrella organization of all leagues of local government units (LGUs) and locally elected officials in the country, under a grant from the Coalitions for Change (CfC) supported through the Australian Embassy – The Asia Foundation (TAF) Partnership in the Philippines, is currently studying the supply and demand of senior high school (SHS) vouchers particularly in local colleges and universities (LCUs), to identify reform areas in the policies and program implementation of K to 12.

ULAP is committed to pushing for convergence among national government, local governments, and private and civil society sectors to achieve inclusive growth, genuine autonomy, and improved governance and service delivery at the local level. ULAP performs policy support, systems and capacity building, mainstreaming and scaling up of best practices for local governments.

As provided under the Republic Act 7160, also known as the Local Government Code (LGC) of 1991, the education as a service delivery area is not a fully devolved function to the LGUs, but rather a decentralized one. LGUs provide support through additional classrooms and facilities as well as administrative support such as salaries and wages for additional teachers, through the Local School Board, composed of LGUs and division offices of Department of Education (DepEd). These LGU education investments are usually funded through the Special Education Fund of LGUs which they collect from one percent (1%) of real property taxes. SEF spending of LGUs follows guidelines approved by the DepEd, Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG), and Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

Moreover, local governments are recognized as a major partner of DepEd in the implementation of educational reforms. Thus, this has paved way to expand the coverage of the SEF which aims to align and respond with the changes in the needs and delivery-service of LGUs with regard to public education which includes the Senior High School implementation as part of the K to 12 Program of the DepEd. Currently, the new SEF guidelines are under review of the DILG and DBM.

With the full continuance of the said program, ULAP undertook the following strategies to explore how national and local government partnerships may be utilized in the furtherance of policy reform direction in Senior High School with a particular focus on the Voucher System Program. The figure below summarizes the activities conducted by ULAP for this project.