This paper examines the role of globalization on public spending on education in Europe. With the implementation of the Bologna process, the changes taking place in the educational structure in Europe have highlighted the importance of public education expenditures. Taking into account the effects of trade, income, and socio‐demographic factors, we study the impact of globalization on public education expenditure at preprimary, primary, secondary, and tertiary institutions using a panel data model for 25 EU countries for the 1998–2010 period. Our findings with different indices of globalization depict a positive effect on education financing. The use of legal and institutional variables, the inclusion of the crisis and euro dummies, and further control variables do not alter our main findings. The Bologna dummy variable is not found to have a significant effect on public education financing, indicating that the integration goals under this process have not translated into increasing levels of public expenditure for education.