FRONTIER CENTRE FOR PUBLIC POLICY P OLICY S ERIES No. 219 / OCTOBER 2018 NEVER ENOUGH The Increasing Cost of Public Education in Manitoba and How to Curb it BY ROD CLIFTON AND ALEXANDRA BURNETT FRONTIER CENTRE FOR PUBLIC POLICY I deas that change your world / www.fcpp.org I 1 FRONTIER CENTRE FOR PUBLIC POLICY ROD CLIFTON Rodney A. Clifton, B.Ed., M.Ed. (Alberta) Ph.D. (Toronto), and Fil.Dr. (Stockholm), is the Publications Editor and Senior Fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. He is also a professor emeritus at the University of Manitoba and a retired fellow at St. John’s College. His most recent book, What’s Wrong with Our Schools and How We Can Fix Them, was published in 2010 and was written with Michael Zwaagstra and John Long. ALEXANDRA BURNETT Alexandra Burnett, B.A., B.A. (Regina) is a Junior Research Associate at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. FRONTIER CENTRE FOR PUBLIC POLICY 203-2727 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada R3J 0R2 Tel: 204-957-1567 Email: [email protected] The Frontier Centre for Public Policy is an independent, non-profit organization that undertakes research and education in support of economic growth and social outcomes that will enhance the quality of life in our communities. Through a variety of publications and public forums, Frontier explores policy innovations required to make the prairie region a winner in the open economy. It also provides new insights into solving important issues facing our cities, towns and provinces. These include improving the performance of public expenditures in important areas such as local government, education, health and social policy. The author(s) of this study have worked independently and the opinions expressed are therefore their own, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the board of the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. Copyright © 2018 by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. Policy Series No. 219 • Date of First Issue: October 2018. Reproduced here with permission of the author(s). Any errors or omissions and the accuracy and completeness of this paper remain the responsibility of the author(s). ISSN 1491-78 Frontier Centre for Public Policy expresses its appreciation and thanks to the Lotte and John Hecht Memorial Foundation for supporting for this project. I deas that change your world / www.fcpp.org 2 FRONTIER CENTRE FOR PUBLIC POLICY P OLICY S ERIES No. 219 / OCTOBER 2018 NEVER ENOUGH The Increasing Cost of Public Education in Manitoba and How to Curb it BY ROD CLIFTON AND ALEXANDRA BURNETT Acknowledgement We thank Edwin Buettner, John Long, Hymie Rubenstein, and Michael Zwaagstra for carefully reading this report and providing corrections and suggestions. Even so, we are responsible for the remaining errors. TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary 4 Introduction 5 The Data 7 Results 8 Tables and Charts 11 Endnotes 16 Bibliography 16 3 FRONTIER CENTRE FOR PUBLIC POLICY EXECUTIVE SUMMARY • From 2002-03 to 2016-17, a fourteen year period, the cost of public education on a per student basis increased by over 70 percent and the CPI increased by less than 35 percent. At the same time, public school enrollment dropped by 1.8 percent while the number of educators increased by 11.0 percent. • To pay for the increase in educators, public school boards in Manitoba increased their taxes on property by much more than the Consumer Price Index (CPI). • The largest per student increase was in Frontier School Division at $8,427 and the smallest increase was in Beautiful Plains School Division at $3,931. • In 2016-17, the most expensive education was in Frontier School Division at $20,305 per student, and the least expensive was in Garden Valley School Division at $10,520 per student. • If public education expenditures per student had increased at the same rate as the CPI, the saving would have been $873-million for the province in 2016-17 alone, with savings of about $6.1-billion over the 14-year period. • Public education expenditures cannot continue to increase at a rate that far exceeds the CPI without crowding out other necessary expenditures, increasing the provincial debt, and burdening taxpayers with ever-increasing provincial and school board taxes. 4 FRONTIER CENTRE FOR PUBLIC POLICY INTRODUCTION On August 1, 2018, Manitoba’s Premier, Brian taxes on property owners.5 In response, the Pallister, shuffled his cabinet, and appointed previous Minister of Education, Ian Wishart, said: Kelvin Goertzen as Minister of Education. Since “It’s liveable. It’s not what we had hoped.”6 The the beginning of the PCs time in power in 2016, new Minister of Education will likely take a stronger Mr. Goertzen was Minister of Health, cutting and stand with the school boards. streamlining to get the runaway health costs under control. Now he is responsible for bringing the rising Not surprisingly, taxpayers across the country have cost of public education under control. Manitoba is heard that schools need significantly more money the only province that still permits school boards to deliver educational programs, and if budgets are to tax property owners to fund public schools,1 and constrained, students will suffer. Taxpayers, and Minister Goertzen has obviously heard the cries of especially parents of school-aged children, seem despair from school board officials when they have ready to accept the claim that public schools are been formulating their budgets. They continually underfunded. But, in summarizing the research on cry “there is never enough for all the good things educational funding in North America, education we need to do.” researcher Jay Greene says: “If people know anything about public schools, it’s that they are A couple of years ago, for example, the Winnipeg strapped for cash and would perform significantly School Division (WSD), the largest division in the better if only they had more money.”7 William province proposed to increase property taxes by Baumol calls the exponential growth in expenditures 6.4 percent. Board chair Mark Wasyliw claimed that on public education “the cost disease.”8 if the school trustees did not approve the budget, the Division would need to cut teachers’ jobs and In 2014, a report by the Frontier Centre for Public programs. Such cuts “would destroy the division Policy showed that the cost disease infected public 9 from within.”2 At the time, the proposed increase education across the country. But there was was more than eight times the increase in the considerable variability across the provinces and Consumer Price Index (CPI), which was about 0.5 territories, and jurisdictions that spent more money percent for that year.3 did not have higher educational achievement than jurisdictions that spent less. The rising cost A week later, the trustees approved a 5.89 percent for Manitoba was in the middle of the twelve increase in property taxes, only half a percent below jurisdictions. Between 1999-00 and 2010-11, the the budget that was proposed. Mr. Wasyliw continued cost of educating the average student in Manitoba his defiant claims: “We have no control over the increased by 77.4 percent while the CPI increased province underfunding Winnipeg School Division. by 25.5 percent, or more than three times the CPI. This certainly isn’t the budget I’d planned on passing this year—it is a product of the external pressures on Recently, the CD Howe Institute has reported on the Winnipeg School Division.” The chair of the division’s performances of Canadian students on the Program Finance Committee, Chris Broughton, echoed the for International Student Assessment (PISA). Chairman’s sentiment: “Winnipeg School Division Manitoba students had mediocre results in reading, does not have a spending problem, it has a funding math, and science. Moreover, the PISA scores problem.”4 He meant that the provincial government have declined over the last few years, and are now did not provide enough money for the board to run below the OECD average. Over the same period, the system to serve all the students’ needs. the cost of public education has increased. The CD Howe Institute correctly says: “it is misleading to Ever since the election in 2016, the PC government label their [Manitoba and Saskatchewan] education has focused on reducing public spending. At the system as fairing well.”10 same time, the school boards have been raising 5 FRONTIER CENTRE FOR PUBLIC POLICY It is not sustainable to have the cost of education This study may help Minister Goertzen because we consistently increasing faster than the CPI without assess the cost of public education in Manitoba from crowding out other necessary expenditures, 2002-03 to 2016-17, and we show the differences increasing the provincial debt, and burdening in per student costs in 36 of the 38 school divisions. taxpayers with ever-increasing taxes.11 Sooner or The study reveals that the cost of public education later, the increasing cost of education will need to varies across the divisions and has increased be slowed to a rate that is, at most, on par with between two and four times the growth in the CPI. the rate of economic growth. Of course Minister Finally, the study suggests ways of reducing the Goertzen will try to constrain the rising costs of expenditures. public education over the next two years. The school boards and the Manitoba Teachers Society are likely to put up a good fight to keep the money flowing. 6 FRONTIER CENTRE FOR PUBLIC POLICY THE DATA The data for this study comes from the Financial Student-Educator Ratios Reporting and Accounting in Manitoba Education (FRAME) reports from 2002-03 to 2016-17 (the A definition of student-educator ratio is included in 13 most recent data that are available).