Province announces education funds for Manitoba school divisions

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This article was published 01/02/2024 (595 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Brandon School Division is set to receive an 8.5 per cent funding increase in 2024 — 10 per cent if you include new nutrition funding — the provincial government announced Thursday.

School divisions are also being permitted to raise education property taxes this year.

Education Minister Nello Altomare announced details of funding for the 2024-25 school year at an 11:30 a.m. media conference, but reporters were provided an embargoed technical briefing early Thursday morning.

Manitoba’s overall funding increase for education is $104.2 million in 2024, of which $93.4 million will be directed to public schools and $10.8 million to private schools.

Of that total, $51.3 per cent will be directed towards school operations, a 5.3 per cent increases. Another $11.3 million will be used to service debts, a 7.3 per cent increase.

The final $30.5 million will be spent on new initiatives, $27.5 million towards the school nutrition program the government announced earlier this week and $3 million to help reduce class sizes in early years classes.

Starting this year, the provincial government will require school divisions to publicly report their class sizes. A format for these reports has yet to be determined.

Manitoba’s previous Progressive Conservative government started to eliminate education property taxes and said it was looking into a new funding model for education but had not come forward with that model before losing last October’s election.

The new NDP government is now committing to announcing a new funding model a year from now and implementing it going into the 2025-26 fiscal year.

Read more in Thursday’s edition of the Sun.

» The Brandon Sun