Funding Formula Review to Benefit Students, School

EDUCATION--Funding Formula Review to Benefit Students, School Boards

Students and school boards will benefit from a review of the school board funding formula said Education Minister Jamie Muir, after an independent report on school board funding was presented by its author today, March 29.

Mr. Muir said that staff from the Department of Education will meet with school boards before finalizing a new approach to funding.

"My priority is to continue to ensure students across the province have equal opportunity to receive a quality education," said Mr. Muir. "That's why we're working with school boards to finalize a funding formula that is fair, transparent and equitable to all students."

Bill Hogg, former provincial deputy minister of finance, presented the proposed new funding formula framework to school boards, the Nova Scotia School Boards Association and representatives of the Nova Scotia Teachers Union today.

Mr. Hogg's job was to recommend to the Department of Education a funding formula that is fair and transparent to school boards and the public. School boards, the Nova Scotia School Board Association and other education partners had an opportunity to comment on Mr. Hogg's preliminary report before it was submitted to the department.

"As pleased as we are with Mr Hogg's work, we are not in a position today to accept his proposal," said Mr. Muir. "We must first discuss the proposal in depth with each school board. Their input is critical to ensure a new funding formula reflects the different cost pressures across the province and other factors, including geography and the rate of enrolment decline."

The proposed funding formula framework indicates that there needs to be a change in how education dollars are distributed. In response, the Department of Education will start to address equity differences in 2005-06 while it reviews the proposed formula with school boards.

In the interim:

• To ensure no school board will receive a funding reduction in 2005-06, school board funding will be distributed on the same basis as 2004-05,;
• School boards that would receive increased funding under the report's recommendations will receive 50 per cent of that increase as an additional allocation starting in 2005-06. This amounts to $2 million shared among the Cape Breton-Victoria, Halifax, South Shore and Tri-County school boards and Conseil scolaire acadien provincial.

Mr. Hogg will join officials from the Department of Education when they meet with the school boards beginning in May 2005.