There is little in the province’s 2012-13 budget for the public education sector except continuing fiscal challenges, say Nanaimo teachers and education officials.
The province has frozen block funding at current levels – $4.7 billion annually – through to 2014-15, but provided an additional $165 million over three years for the Learning Improvement Fund, which will go to classrooms with the highest needs.
The special fund is in response to issues surrounding 2002 legislation that stripped teachers’ contracts of certain working conditions, including limits on class sizes and the number of special needs students in each class. A Supreme Court ruling last spring found parts of that legislation unconstitutional and gave the province a year to fix it.
Derek DeGear, president of the Nanaimo District Teachers’ Association, said the static funding doesn’t keep up with inflation and increased costs.
“We’re at the back end of a decade of cuts to the system,” he said. “What this signals to me is a new decade of cuts to come.”
DeGear called the $165-million fund, divided up over three years, a “drop in the bucket” for a $4.7-billion annual budget. He estimates it will mean an additional $8 per classroom next fall and nowhere near what the province would spend if it put guaranteed size and composition limits back in teacher contracts.
The special fund will also force districts, schools and classrooms to compete for a limited pool of resources, rather than guarantee support for all students, he added.
Jamie Brennan, Nanaimo school board chairman, said no new money means trustees will have to make hard decisions to balance the books, as inflation costs and increased Medical Service Plan premiums put more pressure on finances.
“It’s bad news, but we have to be provoked to act, to make some fairly difficult decisions over the next few months,” he said. “Continuing to cut is really problematic for me.”
Trustees and district officials are working on a strategic plan that Brennan hopes will contain some options to save money and generate additional revenue, such as leasing or selling surplus assets.
“The potential is there for school closures as well,” he said.
Brennan is encouraged by the province’s apparent change of mind on disposition of surplus assets and hopes it will mean a loosening of the lengthy process districts must go through to sell surplus properties.
Secretary-treasurer Phil Turin said he doesn’t know how much money the district will be allotted yet, but the MSP premium hike will be an added pressure to next year’s budget. Last week, his rough estimate was that the district would be short about $733,000.
He also told trustees that the board has a “window of opportunity” over the next year to make some money-saving changes before major funding shortfalls are likely.
University funding reduced
For post-secondary institutions, the province has given the sector a year to reduce administrative and other costs before funding will be reduced by $20 million in 2013-14 and $50 million in 2014-15.
Steve Beasley, executive director of the Vancouver Island University Students’ Union, said this is bad news for students.
“What they’re really announcing there is tuition fees are going to skyrocket,” he said. “The outcome of huge cuts to post-secondary funding is much, much higher tuition fees. It will mean that less people are able to afford to go and those that do go will have much higher levels of debt.”
The union has already been campaigning to reduce tuition fees and eliminate interest charges on provincial loans, said Beasley, and the average student debt load is $27,000 plus interest.
Debt for single parents and many low-income families is often higher than this, he added.
“It should be your marks and your work ethic that determine what kind of education you get, not your wealth,” said Beasley. “[The cuts are] short-sighted economically. It does nothing to help the B.C. economy to grow from resource-based to knowledge-based.”
Pat Eagar, VIU’s vice-president of administration and finance, said the university will have to explore other revenue streams.
With provincial funding remaining static in the last few years, she said the institution has already begun pursuing different options such as contract training work.
“Because for a number of years we’ve been absorbing the impact of inflation, each additional loss of revenue stream adds to that challenge,” said Eagar.
