This paper surveys European and United States approaches to public funding for post-compulsory education and offers an analytical framework describing how the funding is allocated, with a particular focus on identifying the principles that governments use to determine access to public funding for post-compulsory education. The study identifies two stages in post-compulsory education now common in Europe and more recently in the U.S. The first stage is the additional education undertaken between the age at which the requirement for compulsory schooling ends and the attainment of a "threshold qualification." In the Nordic countries, the United Kingdom (UK), and the U.S., government funding in the form of a universal entitlement is made available to encourage all young people to attain a qualification level deemed necessary to obtain work. For the second stage of post-compulsory education, the entitlement to public funding is dependent upon meeting criteria for initial access and continued funding. The survey identifies five different underlying principles that governments use in funding the first of the two stages of post-compulsory education and four principles related to access to funding for participation in the second stage. The principles focus on the following: (1) the way government-based funding is distributed; (2) the obligations of the recipients; (3) academic requirements; (4) satisfactory performance; and (5) a move from parent means-testing to student responsibility. Implications of the findings for Australian are outlined. (Contains 29 references.) (KC)