Good first steps in education funding

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/04/2024 (539 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After years of provincial austerity budgets that put school divisions under financial strain and failed to provide the necessary funding to support students, the 2024 budget signals a hopeful change. However, the budget falls short in some respects and we are left with questions about specifics in the plan for education moving forward.

Public schools should be cornerstones of every neighbourhood, inclusive spaces that support the well-being of children, families, and communities. We want a budget that makes this a reality.

One of the highlights of the current budget is the $30 million designated for a universal K-12 nutrition program in every school across the province. In a province where 27.2 per cent of preschoolers and 24 per cent of school-aged children live in poverty, this funding has the potential to improve the health, well-being, and success of countless children.

However, more must be done to holistically address poverty inside schools and in communities. For example, in its report released in February 2023, the Poverty and Education Task Force outlined a range of recommendations that included mental health initiatives, addressing racism, improving access to transportation, supporting Indigenous students and children in care, and more.

Schools need to be community-oriented spaces and parts of the budget reflect this. The two new schools that will be built will include dedicated spaces for childcare centres, which demonstrates consideration for the needs of families and communities.

However, given the current lack of child-care spaces and the shortage of early child-care educators, more must be done in this area. We hope that more attention will be given to supporting our province’s youngest students, with more access to full-day kindergarten and pre-kindergarten programs across the province, many of which have been lost after years of underfunding.

The aim to reduce class sizes is a move in a positive direction, where early years learners can receive more teacher attention and support. The province has allocated $3 million to reduce class sizes, which seems like a paltry amount compared to the new $10.9 million dollars allocated to private schools in this budget, a decision which does not serve the greater public.

It remains to be seen whether the $3 million is a sufficient amount of money and how specifically class size reduction will be addressed. Inadequate funding can lead to unintended consequences, such as larger class sizes in older grades or a shifting of resources away from other vital areas. Is the province committing to creating class size policies, hiring more teachers, and expanding school infrastructure?

If the province is committed to smaller class sizes, there needs to be a plan to address the teacher shortage.

There are now hundreds of teaching positions filled by non-certified teachers, many teaching positions are not being filled, and the substitute teaching pool has been drained. In rural and northern communities, this is a longstanding problem that needs action.

In addition, recent reports from the Newcomer Education Coalition and the Winnipeg Indigenous Executive Circle indicate a significant underrepresentation of racialized and Indigenous teachers in schools. The province needs a plan to recruit, educate, and retain more teachers and also find pathways into teaching for racialized and Indigenous people.

Importantly, the province is revising the education taxation credits and rebates, removing the education property tax rebate and replacing it with a homeowners affordability tax credit of up to $1,500, which is more progressive. The province claims this will generate $148 million of tax revenues. As well, the province recently gave permission to trustees to raise property taxes, giving school divisions back some local control over their own funding. These funds are badly needed and these are good first steps.

Manitoba schools need a new funding model that mandates equitable, robust, consistent, and predictable funding. This will allow school divisions to plan for the long term and to develop community-responsive programming to best support their schools’ students and families.

The 2024-25 budget shows a promising shift towards treating education not as an expense, but rather as an investment in our communities and in our province’s future.

However, this budget is only the first step. More long-term, community-oriented planning is needed going forward, along with greater government transparency in the process.

Ellen Bees and Melanie Janzen are members of People for Public Education.