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$309M for Ontario schools


Aug 14, 2007 11:58 AM
Canadian Press

Ontario school boards will receive an additional $309 million in funding over the next two school years, which should mean most school boards across the province can operate without a running a deficit, Education Minister Kathleen Wynne said Tuesday.

Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty said he's allocating $182 million for the coming school year and an additional $127 million in 2008-09 to improve the quality of education and help school boards manage their budgets.

The new funding, which is on top of a $781-million funding boost announced in March, includes $41 million to hire 300 more vice-principals in large schools. Another $52 million will be spent to ensure funding for support workers, secretaries and supply teachers better reflects actual costs.

Funding is also available for such areas as education assistants, primary teachers and school bus operations.

Wynne said she's optimistic that the additional funding will take a lot of pressure off school boards that were struggling to balance their budgets.

"What this money is doing is it is to a large extent offsetting the gap between what boards are paying for services and salaries and so on, and what we have been funding," Wynne said.

"I am quite confident that this announcement actually is going to mean that most of the boards in the province will not be dealing with deficits."

Finding the right funding formula is "forever a work in progress," McGuinty said, adding that the province should review the formula in a few years time.

"We have already made numerous improvements to it and we believe that the cumulative impact of those changes already made, together with all those to be made between now and 2010, should be formally reviewed at that time," he said.

 

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School boards surprised by McGuinty's spending
Premier unexpectedly shells out millions to pay for new vice-principals and teachers, with election now less than two months away
JILL MAHONEY

EDUCATION REPORTER

August 15, 2007

Ontario school boards welcomed the provincial government's pre-election boost to education funding yesterday, but many said the money is not enough to ease their cash crunch.

Premier Dalton McGuinty, whose Liberals are seeking re-election in less than two months, announced that boards would get an extra $182-million for the coming school year and an additional $127-million in 2008-2009.

"No one can doubt our commitment, our putting our money where our mouth is, when it comes to supporting public education in Ontario," he told reporters in Brampton, west of Toronto.

For the coming academic year, the government will give boards the money for 300 more vice-principals and 240 additional teachers for primary grades as well as funds to help maintain and operate schools.

The breakdown includes $41-million for vice-principals, $20-million for teachers, $20-million for school operations and $12-million for busing costs.

"I think there's something in this announcement for every board in the province, so it will be very well received," said Rick Johnson, president of the Ontario Public School Boards' Association.

As well yesterday, Mr. McGuinty promised a formal review of the government's contentious education funding formula by 2010, which many school administrators and advocates say is too late. The formula allocates money to boards based on several factors, including enrolment.

School boards have long struggled to operate within the constraints of the funding formula. Indeed, 26 boards - or one-third of the province's total - have used more than $100,000 from their reserve funds to balance their budgets for the 2007-2008 year, according to a government spokeswoman.

The Toronto District School Board's $20.7-million share of the new funding for the coming school year will almost eliminate its projected budget shortfall of around $25-million, board chair Sheila Ward said.

"It'll ease some of the real pressures within our system. I always want more; I'm never going to say thank you, that's all, I don't need any more, but this was unexpected and I'm very pleased," Ms. Ward said.

The York Region District School Board's $8.8-million portion will likely provide for an additional 20 or so vice-principals among other improvements, chair Bill Crothers said.

However, the timing of the announcement means that the vice-principals likely won't be in place for the first day of school.

By increasing dollars and recognizing the funding formula is flawed, the government is offering an olive branch to cash-strapped boards, said Annie Kidder, executive director of People for Education, a parents group.

"It's not a magic wand and it's not going to solve it all overnight."

But I think what it does do that's important is that it acknowledges to boards that there is a gap and that there is a problem."

The extra $182-million for the 2007-2008 school year represents a 1-per-cent increase in total education funding and an average increase of $94 a pupil under the funding formula, which now provides an average of $9,256 per student.

In March, the government also boosted education funding for the 2007-2008 academic year, then by $781-million.