Thread by @abeja_el

1) Today's @WinnipegNews had the following piece about education funding in our province. While the stats in the piece are true, it fails to paint a full picture. Read on to learn why.
#mbpoli #mbedchat

winnipegfreepress.com/local/tories-r…

2) Brodbeck says school divisions have doubled their per student spending from 1999 to 2018. This is true. I looked at the 1997/98 budget and compared to 2017/18 figures. The 2017/18 per student spending was $13,287, while 97/98 was $6,158 (adjusted for inflation that's $8,911).

3) He blamed decades of uncontrolled spending and in particular singled out costs relating to divisional administration in particular. Using the adjusted for inflation 1997/98 dollars, divisional administration spending increased by 36%, which would be $21 million.

4) You know which category increased the most during this period?
Student support services - costs relating to children with special needs, including resource teachers, some EAs, clinicians, supplies etc. This increased by 107% or $227 million adjusted for inflation dollars.

5) This makes sense to me. During this period, inclusion has become a guiding principle. By law now, children with special needs must be included in our classrooms (which is absolutely how it should be). I would guess this requires extra supports, which costs money.

6) Instead of examining how a large portion of the spending increases comes from some important services, like supporting children with special needs, Brodbeck chose to talk about $1 million worth of travel spending from superintendents and trustees.

7) I don't disagree that it is important to look at our practices and consider what is necessary spending. But it seems disingenuous to decry wasteful spending when the majority of the increases come from some essential services.

8) Our school divisions offer more now than they did twenty years ago and often end up dealing with societal issues that are outside of the realm of K to 12 academics.

9) Community and Education Services (non-credit courses to community groups, pre-K education, community use of facilities) increased spending by 120% (again when adjusted for inflation).

10) Twenty years ago, there wasn't even a category for Adult Education Centres in the budget, because I guess they weren't offered back then. Now they cost $11 million a year.

11) Even transportation of pupils spending increased by more than divisional administration spending (a 60% increase or $39 million adjusted for inflation dollars).

12) The province is pushing a narrative, criticizing wasteful spending. When making education cuts, they are focusing on divisional admin because that is more palatable to the public. I would guess they are preparing the public as greater changes happen with the MB Ed Review.

13) This narrative devalues the work of the education system in our province. Spending has increased in order to address the rising needs of the province's children and to meet the needs of our community.

14) Education is a public good and the current conversation happening surrounding how we fund it has lost sight of that. I don't know how to fix that, but I'm open to suggestions.

15) Thanks for indulging my nerdy dive into the exciting world of education finance. I hope my math was accurate.

Cue another article fixating on divisional travel expenses. To put this in perspective, the $1 million dollars spent over two years on professional development travel is 0.04% of the 2017/18 education budget.
This is a very small part of a bigger story.

winnipegfreepress.com/local/louis-ri…