Financing lower-secondary schools from the European Union Funds and the school education system reform in Poland

The reform of the school education system in Poland launched during the 2014-2020 programming period may have consequences for the absorption of EU funds due to the planned phasing out of lower-secondary schools. This issue deserves consideration with regard to the efficiency and rationality of allocation of EU funds in the area of public policy of an EU Member State. The purpose of this article is to investigate the following questions: 1) What is the potential risk of the EU authorities demanding repayment of EU funds allocated to lower-secondary schools due to their phasing-out?; 2) Is it admissible to apply for EU funds by lower-secondary schools during the phasing-out period? The applied method included review of documents regarding legal conditions in the two periods of EU programming in Poland, i.e. years 2007–2013 and 2014–2020, as well as the review of literature on local self-governments’ finance sector. The conducted analyzes refer to the official statement issued by the Ministry of Development regarding the research questions addressed in this paper. The study concludes that there are indicators that repayment of EU funds already awarded to lower secondary schools may be demanded and the admissibility of application for EU funding for these schools during phasing out period may further increase the financial burden on local self-governments in communes.