Education department releases financial data

How can the province and education property taxpayers pump $93 million of new money into the public school system this year, yet have spending go up by $72.5 million?

How can spending within the $1,816,127,082 public school system go up by 4.2 per cent this year, but record spending per student increase by 4.6 per cent?

OK, the numbers in the department of education's annual financial report are mind-boggling, and the funding of Manitoba public education is complex.

But let's try.

The answer to the first question is that the NDP has switched its funding focus from improving the quality of education, to freezing, or at least holding down, education property taxes.

Money going into the system exceeds money spent because the province offered tax incentive grants to divisions willing to freeze their taxes. It increased education property tax credits, money which comes off property owners' tax bills without ever going into a classroom. And the government ordered school divisions to spend their surpluses down to two per cent of revenue -- in effect, spending "old" money in contingency reserve funds -- rather than raise taxes.

Only 12 divisions passed up the tax incentive grants back in March when they set mill rates for this school year.

Those divisions chose to raise property taxes, because they believed that the price for tax freezes would mean cutting jobs, programs or services, or passing up improvements.

But the second question -- how can spending per student go up at a higher rate than spending?

Those provincial data suggest that as enrolment declines -- as it has been throughout the decade -- that school boards are not reducing the number of people on the payroll. So even though there are fewer students, there are just as many classroom teachers, administrators, and resource teachers.

Opposition leader Hugh McFadyen said Wednesday that he has no problem with lower class sizes: "That is a good thing. It's a reflection of the decline in enrolment. As a parent, I think it's positive."

But McFadyen said administration costs should be dropping as student numbers fall -- keep the frontline teachers, but find ways to cut overhead, he said.

"The government has used tax-incentive grants to temporarily keep property taxes down," but that's not sustainable, McFadyen said.

Former education minister Peter Bjornson had threatened to cap education spending in this coming March's budgets, and possibly even impose tax freezes across Manitoba. He had not committed to continuing tax-incentive grants to help achieve tax freezes.

Bjornson is gone and his successor, Nancy Allan, will not grant media interviews, at least until the end of the month, say her aides.

Meanwhile, if you want proof schools have as many teachers while students decline, try this -- the pupil/teacher ratio dropped this year from 17.6 kids per classroom teacher to 17.4, the pupil/educator ratio from 14 to 13.9.

Look almost anywhere in the system, and costs per student go up faster than overall costs.

Student support services are up 4.8 per cent, for example, but by 5.2 per cent per student.

OK, you're asking, doesn't overall spending of 4.6 per cent exceed inflation?

Of course it does, but the base wage increase for teachers for several years has been three per cent plus cash bonuses of as much as $500, and many teachers also receive increments as they move up in seniority.

Louis Riel School Division settled this year for a contract that gives each teacher pay equal to the highest rate paid anywhere else in the city for that teacher's level of qualifications and years of service, a contract the Manitoba Teacher's Society's website says is an overall 4.82 per cent increase. It's likely many teachers elsewhere will seek a similar deal for 2010-2011.

There are other intriguing tidbits to be found amid the number-crunching.

While enrolment is inexorably dwindling, schools are busing an additional 697 kids this year, and running buses almost 500,000 more kilometers -- where there's been growth, it's phenomenal rural growth, primarily in the rural areas around Steinbach and Winkler.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 20, 2009 B3