Analysis of the Components and Structure of Educational Policy : Focusing on Policies to Reduce Private Education Expenditures

This study aims to analyze the characteristics of educational policy components and policy structures, and to identify the impact of these structural characteristics on policy outcomes. To this end, the characteristics of policy components and policy structures were analyzed for major private education cost reduction policies by government. As a result of the study, the initially conceived policy structure model was modified into a model consisting of eight policy components (policy issues, policy goals, policy causal hypotheses, policy means, policy interest groups, policy systems, social values, and policy names). In addition, it was confirmed that the lack of validity of policy causal hypotheses in each policy structure, the content of accompanying social values, lack of cooperation between the policy system and interest groups, and lack of objective policy evaluation and feedback systems had a significant impact on policy outcomes. Therefore, this study emphasized that in order for policies to operate effectively, valid policy causal hypotheses, appropriate accompanying social values, communication and cooperation with policy interest groups, and appropriate evaluation and feedback systems are necessary. Furthermore, it is expected that the policy components and policy structure model established in this study can be applied not only to the education policy field but also to other policy fields, thereby enabling more effective systematic analysis, design, and performance prediction of policies. In addition, follow-up research tasks that can further develop the research results were proposed.