No, the sky isn’t falling, school boards

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/04/2016 (3640 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

How about a quick quiz in social studies?

First question: what is the difference between the Chicken Little folk tale and the trustees for Manitoba school divisions?

The answer: Chicken Little cried “the sky is falling” a few times before he realized an acorn had landed on his head. Only Henny Penny, Cocky Locky and a few other foolish animals believed him.

Trustees for Manitoba school divisions, on the other hand, cry “The sky is falling” every spring. Then, Manitoba taxpayers give them more money to run schools with fewer and fewer students. Taxpayers may not believe the trustees, but nonetheless, they pay their school taxes.

For example, Mark Wasyliw, chairman of the Winnipeg School Division’s board of trustees, said recently cutting $5.5 million — about 1.4 per cent — from the $396.5-million operational budget “would destroy the division from within.”

The FRAME report from the Education Department shows in the 2012-13 school year, the WSD’s operating expenses were $338.4 million, increasing to $346.9 million in 2013-14 (the last year data are available). Over that time, the number of students decreased by 279, the cost per student increased by 3.5 per cent and the Consumer Price Index increased by only 0.5 per cent. Consequently, the operating expenses for each student in WSD had actually increased by seven times the CPI.

A few school boards, however, can keep the operational expenses below the CPI. The Frontier school board — the most expensive division in the province — increased its operating expenses by just 0.04 per cent ($66 per student), Mountain View increased its expenses by 0.06 per cent ($77), Swan Valley increased its expenses by 0.06 per cent ($79), and, surprisingly, only one division, Mystery Lake, decreased its expenses, by 0.04 per cent ($56).

On the other hand, operational expenses increased by 11 per cent in Garden Valley ($1,024 per student) and by 7.8 per cent in both Beautiful Plains ($811) and Red River Valley ($922). Hanover is the least-expensive school division in the province, but it still increased its operational expenses by 4.5 per cent ($415). The average increase for all public school divisions was 3.6 per cent ($408 per student), resulting in operating expenditures for the province of just over $2 billion.

Second question: what should be done about the exponential rising costs for educating public school students?

If re-elected, NDP Leader Greg Selinger promises to increase funding to school boards by $32.5 million and spend an additional $50 million on special projects. Moreover, he would continue exempting senior citizens from school taxes raised by school boards.

However, the polls indicate Tory Leader Brian Pallister, not Selinger, is most likely to win the election. What should he do if he sits in the premier’s chair?

Pallister claims he can save taxpayers a considerable amount of money by requiring all public services, including public education, to become more efficient by eliminating waste. He says when this waste is eliminated, the performance of students will not decline. Parents and taxpayers will need good data on achievement to see if this is true.

Eliminating waste could mean many things, and Pallister has not yet said what he has in mind. For example, it could mean capping the increases for each division at the CPI, or it could mean reducing operating expenses to the least expensive division, Hanover.

If all school divisions kept their operational expenditures per student to the increase in CPI, the savings from 2012-13 to 2013-14 would have been $60.3 million, or almost three per cent of the operational expenditures. If, on the other hand, all divisions reduced their expenditures to the per-student cost in Hanover, the savings would have been $394 million, or almost 20 per cent.

Pallister cannot save much by keeping the public school budgets at the CPI rate. He needs to do more. Here are a few suggestions: First, he should enact legislation to stop school boards from taxing property owners. Instead, the provincial government should directly fund students in all public schools. Second, Pallister should tell the divisions they will receive the amount equal to the cost of educating students in Hanover plus the CPI increase. Third, if school boards need more money, they must provide well-justified budgets for increasing their operating expenditures. Finally, the minister of education will carefully review the budgets and allocate increased expenditures based on real needs, not on the basis of past expenditures. This suggestion is, of course, a variation on zero-based budgeting, and it is a way to eliminate waste and inefficiencies.

Of course, Pallister may not want to force school divisions to reduce their operational expenses to the level in Hanover. But even if he stopped school boards from taxing property owners, taxpayers would no longer hear school trustees crying out like Chicken Little and expecting taxpayers to succumb to mass hysteria and open their wallets rewarding school boards with operational funds substantially above the rate of inflation.

Ultimately, it is up to Pallister to stop the hysterical claims from school boards. He should tell us what he plans to do before the election on April 19. And, it is up to citizens to tell him they will no longer respond like Henny Penny and Cocky Locky and continue to believe the sky will fall if school boards do not receive substantial increases in their budgets year after year.

Rodney A. Clifton is professor emeritus of sociology of education at the University of Manitoba.