| Punitive discretionary benchmarks in education play an important role in the construction of the rule of law in education. They are expected to promote the concretization of regulations, enhance the predictability of educational administrative decisions, and achieve a balance between protection and punishment. However, in practice, issues such as the lack of a legitimate foundation, misalignment in application mechanisms, and deficiencies in review, supervision, and rights remedies persist. To address these challenges, it is necessary to strengthen the legitimacy of punitive discretionary benchmarks in education by shifting from a normative power-control model to a functionalist construction model. Conceptually, an equal emphasis on discipline and protection should be maintained, while methodologically, review mechanisms such as the principle of proportionality should be introduced. Additionally, the application mechanism of punitive discretionary benchmarks should be reformed by emphasizing the flexible application of educational discretionary benchmarks and establishing a compliance-based exemption system. Furthermore, a supervisory and remedial mechanism for punitive discretionary benchmarks should be built by improving the internal appeal system within educational institutions and establishing an ancillary review system for educational discretionary benchmarks. |
