<![CDATA[This study aims to analyze in depth the political economy dynamics in the financing of teacher management in the era of regional autonomy in Indonesia. The educational decentralization policy, which was originally projected to improve fiscal efficiency and service quality, has in reality triggered structural conflicts in the form of strengthening the dominance of regional heads as Personnel Guidance Officers (PPK). The method used in this research is a qualitative method with a literature review approach. Data collection techniques were carried out through documentation by reviewing formal regulations and scientific articles from four relevant primary reference journals, which were then dissected using content analysis through a political economy framework analysis. The results showed that the real teacher management cycle from recruitment, placement, promotion, to welfare guarantees is highly vulnerable to being politicized by local bureaucratic elites for short-term practical political interests, such as during regional head elections. This political intervention distorts the educational budget policy in the local budget (APBD), where fund allocation is often trapped in pure bureaucratic absorption formalities and ignores long-term investment in improving teaching competence and fulfilling decent wages for honorary teachers. Although the partial recentralization policy through transferring the management authority of senior high school/vocational school teachers to the provincial level based on Law Number 23 of 2014 has proven effective in reducing politicization at the district/city level, this transition has created new fiscal consequences in the form of swelling personnel expenditures in the Provincial APBD and complexities in synchronizing personnel data. This study recommends the need for strict national merit-based teacher selection standardization and a redesign of regional budgets that are directly oriented toward student learning outcomes.]]>
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