Ford government hikes education spending, chops support for school boards with needy students

Thestar.com
April 29, 2019
Kristin Rushowys

Spending is up in some areas of education, but per-pupil funding has gone down as school boards continue to analyze the impact of their grants for the 2019-20 school year.

After cutting a number of specialized grants last December, the Ford government is now introducing a “priorities and partnership fund” that in part restores money for Focus on Youth, a summer job program for needy inner-city children that began in Toronto more than a decade ago after a spate of deadly gun violence.

Under Education Minister Lisa Thompson, the province will spend $24.66 billion in the coming school year, a slight increase from last year’s $24.53 billion.

At the same time, the government is spending $230 million less on the “learning opportunities grant,” used to support boards with large populations of at-risk students who are living in poverty or dealing with challenging family situations -- although it says more money for that could come through teacher contracts when they are negotiated this year.

The provincial government announced its annual education grants -- formally known as “grants for student needs” or GSNs -- on Friday, information the boards have been clamouring for, given it has come later than usual this year.

Overall, the government will spend $24.66 billion on education, a slight increase from last year’s $24.53 billion -- although that figure includes $564.4 million, the first instalment of a $1.6-billion attrition fund the government has created for boards to adjust to the loss of about 3,500 teaching positions over the next four years as class sizes increase starting in Grade 4.

Per-pupil funding will be $12,246 for 2019-20, down from $12,300 this school year, which critics said will impact student learning conditions, given it includes an overall cut of $630 million from the pupil foundation grant.

Education Minister Lisa Thompson said more money has been set aside up for special education, Indigenous student achievement, French language instruction and student transportation, among other areas.

She told the Star the attrition money shows “the government and Premier (Doug) Ford and myself are absolutely committed to making sure that not one teachers will lose their job because of our proposed changes.”

The per-pupil amount is an average, based on a lot of factors and “it doesn’t reflect the actual direct impact because again, we are increasing funding in so many different ways,” Thompson said.

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New Democrat MPP Marit Stiles (Davenport) -- a former Toronto public school board trustee who had just returned from meeting with concerned constituents in Thompson’s Huron-Bruce riding -- said “the reduction in the budget is far more significant than what it looks like at first glance.”

Harvey Bischof, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation said teacher positions will be lost, funding is down, there’s no allowance for inflation, so “you are looking at a real decline in the amount spent on students.”

The new $330-million “priorities and partnership fund” will be used for grants for parents/school councils (“parent reaching out” grants), improving Indigenous student achievement, math, mental health and special education, including a “after-school skills development program” for students with autism.

Late last year, school boards were caught by surprise with a $25-million cut to the $425 million-fund for “other” specialized education grants -- a pot of money Thompson said had become a “slush fund” under the Liberals.

The Toronto District School Board warned the funding loss for the Focus on Youth program meant job losses for students. Now, the government will spend $7.6 million on Focus on Youth’s summer program -- but Stiles was unsure if boards will even have enough time to organize it.

“It’s going to take weeks for everybody to sort through it. It’s very late in the year for this to be happening. It means that even programs like Focus on Youth may still be a risk because they haven’t come through with the announcement until now,” Stiles said at Queen’s Park.

Amin Ali, policy co-ordinator for the Ontario Student Trustees’ Association, said they’d hoped for an increase in the learning opportunities grant for needy students.

“It is beyond saddening to see the government deeply cut this ... which supports countless students in breaking down barriers to their education,” Ali said.