Province to increase overall school funding 3.5 per cent in fall

Manitoba is topping up funding for public schools by 3.5 per cent next year and continuing to allow boards free rein to raise local taxes.

Education Minister Tracy Schmidt announced nearly $80 million for Manitoba schools Monday.

Operating funding for the province’s 37 public school boards will increase $51 million — 2.9 per cent — in 2026-27.

Schools will receive a combined $15.2 million more for building-related expenses.

A total of $16.6 million has been earmarked for independent schools.

“We’ve heard from many school boards that salary harmonization costs were creating significant pressures for this upcoming year,” Schmidt told a news conference at Earl Grey School.

This year’s operating pot includes $11.4 million worth of specific grants to help school boards pay their teachers in alignment with a provincial salary grid.

Schmidt said the funds are being distributed to boards based on how large their payouts are.

The Winnipeg School Division will receive nearly $1.7 million for harmonization-specific costs.

Seven Oaks and Brandon school divisions have also been allotted upwards of one million for this line item. The former’s allotment is $1.12 million. The latter’s is $1 million.

There aren’t any major changes to how funding was allotted otherwise, Schmidt said, adding that all divisions can expect an injection for another consecutive year.

The Manitoba Teachers’ Society, which represents 17,000 educators, condemned the fine print of the announcement.

The union’s analysis suggests funding for classrooms is only growing 2.3 per cent.

Union leader Lillian Klausen called that sum “a decline in real funding.”

“Classrooms have been operating under immense strain for almost a decade. We are now in a crisis,” Klausen said in a release.

Schmidt touted the announcement as one that will keep pace with inflation. She described the funding allotments as “healthy, stable, robust.”

Manitoba’s inflation rate was 2.7 per cent last year, according to Statistics Canada.

The provincial finance department’s latest forecast suggests inflation will “ease to 1.9 per cent” in 2026.

“I can’t say that we have reached equity and that we’ve reached stability, but we’ve taken a step towards it,” said Alan Campbell, president of the Manitoba School Boards Association.

Campbell said the province’s new harmonization grants will only cover about half of what the expenses are in reality.

As far as he’s concerned, these line items should’ve been “fully funded” given they’re “entirely the result of a provincially mandated teacher-contract structure.”

Manitoba settled its first mega-contract for public school teachers in August 2024.

The historic agreement, which replaced division-specific contracts, will have increased general salaries by 12 per cent between the summer of 2022 and 2026. It establishes a standardized salary scale for 2026-27.

“School boards are inevitably, in all communities, going to be having difficult consultations with their education property taxpayers,” said Campbell, a veteran trustee in the Interlake School Division.

Progressive Conservative education critic Wayne Ewasko said he was disappointed the province has seemingly abandoned an overhaul of the K-12 funding formula to improve equity.

“Manitoba families should be bracing for another round of significant school tax increases,” Ewasko added.

The Winnipeg School Division’s budget is growing five per cent, owing to employee salaries and benefits, superintendent Matt Henderson said.

He indicated harmonization costs are estimated at $8 million.

“There’s been no discussion around caps or anything like that,” the leader of Manitoba’s largest school division told reporters when asked about his office’s discussions with provincial officials about education property taxes.

School boards across the province are slated to host public budget meetings throughout the month.

The WSD board of trustees is inviting members of the public to discuss their priorities at Tec Voc High School on Feb. 24.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca