Teachers’ society to press province on education funding

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This article was published 05/10/2022 (1232 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Manitoba Teachers’ Society says it will press the issue of “inadequate public education funding” that adds to inequities within the public education system when it meets with provincial officials today.

Both the teachers’ union and the Brandon School Division board agree with the province when it comes to a need to revise education funding.

However, both say they worry that the province’s effort to shift away from the local school boards’ ability to tax, to a model where all funding is supplied by the province, which may harm their ability to respond to student needs and erode the quality of education.

“It’s something that the stakeholders in public education have been talking about for a good number of years,” said Manitoba Teachers’ Society president James Bedford.

“One of the things that local funding would allow school divisions to do would be to raise supplemental money to reflect unique programming within that school division.”

The society said it plans to raise the funding issue when it meets with MLAs of all parties today, during World Teachers’ Day.

The scope of the funding review doesn’t go far enough, the society said. While the review does focus on “equity,” that very concept is at risk unless adequate funding is in place.

Wayne Ewasko, minister of education and early childhood learning, provided the Sun with a statement noting that the government increased kindergarten to Grade 12 funding by $460 million in the 2022-23 school year.

That includes an increase of $51 million in annual operating funding and $77 million in additional funding to assist with financial pressures. As well, $22 million was provided to strengthen student learning and supports and $2 million to expand the Elders and Knowledge Keepers in Schools initiative.

“This is the largest funding the education sector has ever received,” Ewasko said. “Manitoba has the second-highest spending per student in Canada at $15,434, after New Brunswick.”

Brandon School Division school board chairperson Linda Ross said it’s true that the province has invested more in education this year than ever before.

“But, the amount of the increase does not cover the cost of inflation,” Ross said. “So, in a sense, we have a decrease.”

The ability to collect local taxes has allowed the division to run initiatives that address specific local concerns. For example, she said, the division provides all-day kindergarten in several schools but the province only funds half-day kindergarten, so the difference has been funded by local tax dollars.

If the province becomes the sole funder of education, Ross said, there will have to be some kind of mechanism to allow for that flexibility.

“I hope that as they work through this new education funding model, that part of that model allows for some input, or even a certain specified percentage of dollars, that can be used for local initiatives,” Ross said. “Because, what we need in Brandon, and what we need in Rolling River, and what we need in Winnipeg aren’t all the same things.”

The Brandon School Division balance sheet for the 2022-23 year shows that the provincial government is to provide $69,709,692 (60 per cent) of the division’s $114,491,500 budget. Municipal property taxes are to supply $42,907,108 (37 per cent).

Other revenue sources — tiny in comparison to the provincial funding and municipal taxes — include the federal government, other school divisions, First Nations, and private organizations and individuals.

Funding from the provincial government isn’t enough to cover “regular instruction” costs that include direct classroom expenses such as supplies, textbooks, and equipment but also includes the cost of school staff and administration such as teachers, educational assistants, principals, vice-principals and support staff.

Also included in regular instruction are costs related to gifted students, an international baccalaureate, advanced placement, university and correspondence courses, and general enrichment activities.

The total regular instruction budget line alone comes to $70,093,700.

Other expenses include student support services, adult learning centres, community education and services, divisional administration, instructional and other support services, transportation of pupils, operations and maintenance.

Overall, this leaves a $171,700 deficit on a $114,491,500 budget, although Ross said the division isn’t allowed to run a deficit so adjustments will be made by the end of the year.

The Brandon School Division is already feeling the pinch and support positions have already been cut, Ross said.

“We didn’t cut any teaching positions this year, but we did cut from other positions.”

When it comes to “equity,” Ross said the division has historically invested more money in helping children with special needs than has been provided by the government in recognition that different students begin their education from different starting points.

The board doesn’t want to cut staff, whether it’s teachers or caretakers, but it’s difficult to find other places to trim, she said. There have been cuts to the regular instruction line. The baccalaureate program, for example, is being phased out, she said.

“There comes a point where there’s nothing else that you can cut except positions, and that’s a terrible position to be in.”

If teaching positions are cut, she said, it leads to larger class sizes and research shows class sizes are critical to student learning.

“We’ve worked hard over many years to get that class size down, and it’s a big worry that it may have to increase again, because that’s not good for children’s education.”

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