After the 1989 regime change, thanks to the decentralisation education policy of the government, public education in Hungary entered the path of pluralisation which led to the transformation of the previously uniform state-run school system. Consequently, alternative schools that differed from  mainstream education. However, these changes, in addition to affecting the pedagogical and professional autonomy of schools and teachers and making possible the emergence of alternative pedagogies and schools within the public education system through the free choice of school pedagogical programmes, affected school maintenance as well. The so-called community ownership of schools—i.e., when institutions are governed by local authorities affiliated to a public body or the state—has survived; however, as of 1993, the maintenance of primary and secondary schools came under the jurisdiction of local governments (Ercse & Radó, 2019), and as a result of the democratic reform of the education system, the right to run schools was no longer exclusive to state authorities (acting through local governments): churches and the private sector—foundations, associations, enterprises, private individuals—also had the opportunity to establish and run schools (Langerné Buchwald, 2020). The transfer of school governance also meant the transfer of all related ownership responsibilities, so two areas that are important for our research—approval of pedagogical programmes and school budgeting—came under the jurisdiction of the municipality, church, foundation, or association governing those schools.

Alternative schools established at that time showed a varied picture from the point of view of their governance: most of them were so-called private schools run by foundations or associations. Initially there were church- and denomination-run institutions as well, but their numbers decreased over time, and there were local government schools that also operated along alternative programmes (Várhegyi, 1996; Bodonyi, 2012; Dobos, 2017; Langerné Buchwald, 2020). In contrast to the usual practice in several European and overseas countries, alternative schools in Hungary were only partially independent from the state (Várhegyi, 1996), with the state providing equal state budget support for the operation of all schools regardless of their governance, and regulating their pedagogical activities. However, the financial contributions of the state did not fully cover the implementation of school pedagogical programmes, therefore the additional financial resources necessary for the operation of schools had to be provided by their governing bodies. In case of alternative schools run by the church and municipals, this was provided from their own revenues, while in case of private schools it was sourced from the financial contributions and tuition fees paid by the parents for their children’s education. After the regime change, in the case of alternative private schools, the parents/families paying tuition fees appeared as funders indirectly through school maintenance foundations or associations.

In the period since the regime change, various governments have taken different approaches to education: some of them supported the existence and operation of alternative schools while others hindered it. As a result, in the 30 years that have passed since then, the regulation of the operation, maintenance and financing of alternative schools has changed several times, which has also affected their pedagogical activities. In the framework of the present research, for the period 1990–2020, we explored how the regulation of the operation, governance and financing of alternative schools has changed in the light of legislation and what government and education policy intentions can be identified in each period. On the other hand, we examined how school governance and school managers reacted to the changes in the legislation, how the composition of alternative school governance was rearranged, and what effect this had on the alternative character of the school’s pedagogical activities.  

The study comprised three elements: 1. In order to identify governmental intentions concerning the operation of alternative schools, we applied the method of document analysis and examined the texts of the following acts, regulations and legal documents regulating the operation of alternative schools: a. Act LXXIX of 1993 on Public Education; Act CXC of 2011 on National Public Education and its amendments up to 2020; b. decrees from 2000, 2004, 2006, and 2012 governing the framework curriculum; the register of alternative schools with individual deviation permits; and c. the national budget acts for the period 1994 through 2020 affecting the financing of church-run or private schools. 2. Applying document analysis methods and using data from the registers of the Public Educational Information System, we examined the pedagogical programmes of 20 alternative schools and the changes of their individual curricula in parallel with administration system changes, with the objective of exploring the effects of these system changes on pedagogical activity, especially its alternative character. 3. We conducted semi-structured interviews: on the one hand, with founders or leaders of 20 alternative schools founded immediately after the regime change and operating ever since, or still functioning but not as an alternative school; and on the other hand, with leaders of organisations representing alternative schools (Hungarian Waldorf Association, Association of Foundation and Private Schools, National Center of the Value Transfer and Capacity Building Program). The objective of these interviews was to understand how alternative schools reacted to the legislative changes affecting especially the administration and funding related aspects of their operation, and the way and extent these changes affected their functioning.

The maintenance and funding of alternative schools have definitely shifted in a negative direction over the period under examination. Based on the approach of respective governments and their education policies to the alternativity, two well-separable periods can be distinguished, and the Act CXC of 2011 on National Public Education can be regarded as a dividing line which was the first measure of the centralization efforts of the still ruling right-wing conservative government, and which was followed by several measures against alternativity. Although the level of funding slightly decreased between 1990 and 2011, the operation of alternative schools was not restricted by the conditions; however, in the case of church-run schools, a reduction of their alternative pedagogical character and a definite move towards conservative clerical pedagogical programmes could be observed. After this, significant changes occurred on the field of school administration, which took effect on the alternative character of schools as well: on the one hand, the standardization of education and taking education under central, state control began, and, on the other hand, supporting of the handing over of schools into church governance could be identified. As a result, several alternative schools under private or state governance have chosen to be governed by the church instead. In case of alternative schools, however, the change in the governing body, the switch-over to state- or church-governance has mostly led either to the termination of the programme or the reduction of its alternative character. After this, due to the government’s additional restrictive measures aiming at unification—including linking the operation of alternative programmes to individual deviation permits, the significant limitation of the extent of deviation—the number of alternative schools and the alternative character of programmes have continued to decrease.

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