Education funding: the flow of dollars

Meet Annette Glover. Annette has been a school board trustee for over 14 years and now chairs the finance and planning committee for SD73.

I spoke to Annette, simply put, about funding. Only it wasn’t that simple.

Through our hour-long conversation she explained to me how the budget flows down through the system. She said initial budget talks get started in the fall in Victoria and is based on transfer money from Ottawa as well as the monies being contributed by the provincial government. She and the rest of the board, as well as the province do not learn how the province will allocate funds until the budget is officially released by the finance minister (usually early Spring).

Education funding is based on a formula that takes into account student enrollment numbers, but each school district is evaluated separate of one another. Glover explained that funds are not targeted, which essentially means they are not divided into sections but rather is just a lump sum.

“There is a limited amount of money in what we refer to as targeted, for example First Nations. That money is truly targeted it, it must be spent on First Nations public education and there is a process where we have to be accountable to that,” she said. “The bulk of the remaining monies is centrally up to us how we are going to spend it within our district.”

Glover stressed the issue of there never being enough money for public education, and while she admitted that the government is giving more money she said it is not enough to keep-up with rising costs. Not only is there not enough money, but Glover said the time factor makes the situation more stressful.

“It’s really hard for people to understand that the government in Victoria doesn’t give us much time. We have to have by the end of this school year a preliminary budget into Victoria.”

That’s roughly three months to allocate approximately $120-million. It’s interesting to note that the board is not actually working with that full amount, as about 88 percent of the board’s budget goes directly to pay for labour.

As far as I can tell that doesn’t leave very much money for the other stuff that includes; textbooks, programs and transportation etc.

P.S – Stay tuned for Glover on school closures and reconfiguration.

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