The Ontario government is boosting school board budgets this year with hundreds of millions more in funding.
Education Minister Kathleen Wynne said Monday that school boards will get an extra $781 million in funding for the coming school year.
In a written statement, Wynne said that the funding "reinforces" the government's strategy of new resources and the school funding formula to reflect "the changing needs of our schools."
"Overall, we have listened to our education partners and we've made these improvements based on what we know the cost pressures are in the boards," Wynne told reporters Monday morning.
Ontario's total budget for education in 2007-08 will be $18.3 billion with the added funding.
The government says that the additional funding will be allocated to help pay for the changes to the funding formula.
Wynne said the decision to put more money into education is not an attempt to win support in advance of Ontario's general election in October.
"Students in Grade 1 and 2 don't know that there is an election coming and they really don't care. What they care about is that their teacher has the resources that she needs, that their school has good, clean classrooms and that their parents can be involved in the system," Wynne said.
Three new grant programs are also part of the funding. They are:
- The Program Enhancement Grant to provide money for physical education and arts programs;
- Small schools will also get money to support a minimum number of teachers. In some cases the extra funding will keep small school from closing their doors; and
- First Nations, Metis and Inuit Education Supplement to help support for aboriginal students.
Although Wynne has not fundamentally revamped the way boards are funded, Monday's announcement won her the praise of traditional education critics.
The province is giving school boards the extra time they requested to cap their class sizes at 20 students, while giving them money to hire extra teachers and complete necessary renovations
Announcing the funding in March gives school boards extra time to plan. Funding announcements usually come during the summer months.
"Off the top of my head, I'm a happy camper," said Rick Johnson, president of the Ontario Public School Boards' Association.
"The fact that the grants are in March and I didn't have to wear a Hawaiian shirt and shorts to receive them is a good thing."
Extra funding was also welcome news for the group People for Education.
But Annie Kidder said some boards will still struggle with the high costs of maintaining school facilities and running programs such as English as a second language.
"There is a very big gap between how much things actually cost to run boards and run schools and how much money there is in the funding formula," Kidder said.
"Until we address that problem, we're going to continue to have boards and schools borrowing from Peter to pay Paul or cutting bits of programs here and there."
"That's the big elephant in the room that hasn't been dealt with this year," Kidder added.
With files from The Canadian Press
