BC's Education Budget Faces 'Structural Shortfall'
School trustees, administrators sound alarms.
Enrolment is dropping, but not fixed costs.
Both the New Democrats and the BC Liberals have pledged to maintain funding levels for elementary and secondary education in the province, but the people who have the job of meeting school budgets say they'll need more in order to deal with changing realities.
The Tyee recently talked with representatives of school trustees and administrators and heard deep concerns. They are working hard, they say, to deal with a demographic one-two punch: a dwindling school-age population, and an aging population of administrators.
The result, if no more funds are forthcoming from the provincial government, is a widening "structural shortfall" built into the future of education, say those who look most closely at the numbers.
Caught in the middle: trustees and administrators
They don't get the attention that teachers do, but school trustees and administrators play a major role in B.C. education.
Trustees, in theory, run the show. But Victoria sets their school budgets. Trustees have to operate on the money given them, and they have to cut programs or close schools when the money runs out.
Superintendents are the CEOs of B.C. school districts, advising their boards and doing what the boards tell them. When they have to implement cuts, that makes them villains to district staff.
The principals and vice-principals, meanwhile, have the thankless task of telling their teachers, students and parents just what's being cut.
Members of all three groups don't have reason to expect they will become much popular with staff and students' families in the near future.
A dramatic fall in enrolments
Part of the reason is that the drop in enrolments over the past decade has been dramatic. Between 1998 and 2008, public and private schools have seen almost a seven per cent fall in student numbers. In the public system alone, the fall is almost nine per cent. This has serious funding implications.
Keven Elder, president of the B.C. School Superintendents' Association, says he appreciates that provincial funding hasn't fallen despite the drop in enrolments. But rising fixed costs are creating a "structural shortfall."
He cites a study by the Secretary-Treasurers Association that indicates the scale of the problem: To go on delivering current levels of service, B.C. schools need $132 million more. "Depending on the district, we're one to five per cent shy of maintaining the status quo," Elder says.
A rise in expectations
But the status quo isn't good enough because the schools' mandate keeps growing, and expectations are high.
Elder sees a need to improve the "dysfunctional" relationship between the B.C. Teachers' Federation and the provincial government." It's focused on issues of disagreement, he says, and he'd like to see candidates in the election explain how they'd help to restore the relationship.
For Connie Denesiuk, president of the B.C. School Trustees Association, "better funding" is also critical. She says the funding is up slightly, but "increasing costs put boards in the difficult position of making cuts to balance the budget."
Staffing absorbs about 85 per cent of school budgets, she says. "When contractual settlements carry us over the funding level, it means program cuts."
Other costs are hurting some school districts. "Transportation is a significant cost, and funding for it hasn't increased for years. A review of that funding is taking place, but it's overdue." Denesiuk says some districts are already charging families for bus service, and others are considering that step.
"It's all to keep support in the classroom," she says.
Preparing for special-needs students
Denesiuk says other issues for trustees include money to train new teachers to ensure student success. "We want teacher training to prepare teachers for special-needs students. Integration of such students is working well, but we want to do a better job for every student."
The Liberals have also promised "early learning" programs for four-year-olds, and full-day kindergarten. Denesiuk supports those programs, but not all schools will have the physical space to implement them -- or the money to convert regular classrooms to meet program requirements.
Do the trustees foresee new funding problems over the summer, as the new government creates a real budget? Denesiuk says both Liberals and New Democrats have promised trustees that they'll face no additional budget reductions after the election.
Trustees, elected officials, rely on their superintendents for advice. But many supers are retiring, and they're hard to replace.
Keven Elder says the retirement rate is currently about 10 per cent: "There are about 250 of us, and about 25 have retired in each of the last couple of years."
But the recruitment and retention issue is important at all levels of the system, he says. "We need to ensure a climate where leadership is attracted."
At the local school level, the B.C. Principals and Vice-Principals Association is really worried about funding and demographics. Marilyn Merler, president of the BCPVPA, says Victoria is asking for a three per cent cut in administration budgets to help support classroom activities.
Attracting new principals
The principals worry about recruitment. "It's frightening to see how many are retiring or just leaving the profession," she says. It's becoming harder to attract teachers into administration. Many teachers don't think the extra income is worth the hassle that comes with the job.
And in many districts, senior teachers and vice-principals are paid about the same; in some districts, VPs make less than senior teachers.
"Remote northern districts are really tough to staff," says Merler. She says the turnover of principals and vice-principals is "huge." In one district, a teacher with just three years' experience became a principal.
Principals were once part of the B.C. Teachers' Federation, but the old Socred government pulled them out of the BCTF in 1988. Now, says Merler, they're caught between teachers on one side and parents and government on the other over issues like the Fundamental Skills Assessment test. When teachers refused to deal with the FSA, principals and vice-principals had to administer and score the test.
Elder agrees that everyone in the schools needs to be "on the same page" about assessment, and says the FSA is a challenge. "But assessment done well supports learning," he says.
A conversation about the schools
Whoever wins the election, the schools will still have to deal with funding and demographics. Keven Elder says educators will have to deal with the gap between mandate and funding, and work on system improvements.
"We need a conversation across the province about improving education," he says. He wants to see an improved school-completion rate, and better programs for First Nations and special-needs students. It may be time, he speculates, for a new education commission; it's been 20 years since the Sullivan Commission gave the schools their last detailed scrutiny.
Trustees and administrators are proud of the schools, and all want to see greater student success. As Keven Elder puts it: "How do we create an even better system?"
Related Tyee stories:
- Why BC Schools Are Always Short of Money
Study finds $135 million shortfall in funding, traces the source. - This Budget Is Toxic Fudge
BC's government is in denial about the economic realities we face. - Track education news on The Tyee's political news blog, The Hook.
We've created a special category on the Hook devoted to education issues.
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RickW
10-05-2009
Campbell has already alluded to.........
........the "necessity" of cutting budgets due to the "downturn". So, if he is re-elected, we can expect cuts in the usual places -- education, health, social services.
If he does not get in, he leaves the new government with a conundrum -- where to get the money to continue funding, if not increase it to "civilized" levels. A new government could easily cancel many infrastructure projects, as well as cutting subsidies to O&G, etc. but it will serve as grist for the new opposition's propaganda mill concerning the "lack of business experience" of the new government.
SharingIsGood
10-05-2009
rock and hard place
Excellent article, Crawford Killian!
It is nice to remind us that much of the divisiveness found in schools resulted the the principals being placed at odds with the teachers by the Socreds. It has forced a structure which is much more Top-Down in approach. Administrators are people who gravitate toward having to control things. They are generally concrete-sequential thinkers who often have little patience or respect for some brilliant abstract-random thinking teachers who might take intuitive leaps of logic without wishing to cross all the "t"s or dot the "i"s while they are forced to complete some meaningless minutia.
It must be remembered as well, it was the Socreds who commissioned the overhaul of education with the Sullivan Report. The NDP came into power, and they were left with having to fund its implementation. They had to fund that implementation on top of having to maintain the system that was. After all, students aren't widgets that can sit idle on an assbly line while the factory is retooled and the staf are retrained. This was a huge expense that the NDP had to carry or turn students back to the 19th-century factory model. Most of the Liberals remember school as the 19th century model and they try to fund it as such.
A further trouble is that the percentage of children with special needs is on the rise. The declining over-all numbers of students is being compounded with more special needs children per class. There are more children with difficulties (such as autism) for a whole host of known and unknown reasons: Toxins in the environment (pesticides and plastics etc.); older women giving birth to babies (increases likelihood of downs-syndrome and birth defects); crack, meth, fetal alcohol and other brain-injured babies; 22% of BC children living in poverty and all the malnutrition etc. that comes along with it. Some smaller districts are especially hard hit by these problems because there are not enough qualified resource peole to go around.
RickW, excellent summary of the conundrum faced.
Van Isle
10-05-2009
If Campbell is re-elected
If Campbell is re-elected expect a whole bunch of crap to hit the fan in the next year. Expect mass-demonstrations and the whole of BC will be up in arms over the Liberals mismanagement of the province. I still think we'll have protests/demonstrations next February during the Olympics, and that's just the start. Campbell will resign in about a year from now to "spend more time with the family". (Hmmm, which family?)
dave49
11-05-2009
Carbon offsets
Also, be aware that achieving 'carbon neutrality' by 2010 will mean purchasing official offsets at $25 per tonne CO2.
Where will this money be cut from operational budgets?
Name
11-05-2009
Well done!
Excellent, credible analysis of a central issue in public education that should have been front and centre in this election. (Why hasn't this ever been discussed in any of the mainstream news media?)
It only saddens me that this won't be read by every parent of BC's 500,000 K-12 students who is entitled to go to the polls and do something about it tomorrow!
reallife
11-05-2009
Teachers and the environment
Many teachers are strong supporters of the environmental movement and criticize governments for not doing enough to encourage healthier living. Perhaps the teachers could help fight climate change by giving up their free parking and taking public transit to work. The teachers who do not care about protecting the environment could help fund education by paying market rates for their parking priviledges.
SharingIsGood
11-05-2009
please get real, reallife
Firstly, you ignor the subject: the Liberal's chronic and future underfunding of schools. Secondly, you paint 40,000+ teachers with one brush. Perhaps many are doing as you swish; perhaps many aren't. Thirdly, I know several teachers, and they have described their work to me. They often take large bags and boxes of marking etc. home with them. I catch them making 2 trips from their cars as they come home from work. This is especially true if they must pick up a child from day-care or grab something for dinner. There are trips to resource centres for films, etc.. Further, many teachers are often found doing school-related things (like visit parents and community members, or coach teams or performers) after school hours. Most teachers work 10-14 hours per day, and on many days, they are never quite sure when they will make it home. Until we reduce their ever-increasing work-loads, we cannot expect them to do one thing more. Finally, school grounds are not safe places after school hours. It is an unpatrolled public space. Criminals often hang out in these spaces because there are no home-owners, nor dogs keeping them away. I have heard about women teachers in some violent neighbourhoods who are afraid to go just to the parking lot after dark, let alone walk several blocks with marking in their hands to a bus. One male teacher had actually been attacked and two female had been threatened when they came upon gang activity that was taking place on school grounds. I've walked my dog near the local public school (even in my small friendly neighbourhood) only to have passed by drinking and crack-pipe smoking people on those school grounds as darkness sets in. Teachers didn't go to university for 5-8 years to become cops or soldiers. They didn't take their positions to have to walk the gauntlet to a bus stop and then wait in the darkness for a ride home.
RickW
11-05-2009
Sharing.........
And it has been said that the present-day (soon to be "ex"?) Liberals are recycled Socreds.........
DNA
11-05-2009
I'm confused
I am confused:
1) About 85% of costs is staffing
2) Staffing should be proportional to enrollment, I should think.
3) Enrollment is dropping, over 100 schools have been closed.
3) The Liberal government says it is constantly increasing educational funding.
4) Teachers and principals are retiring, which means expensive senior staff is being replaced with cheaper junior staff.
So... why in the world are trustees saying they can't keep up with costs.
(I understand why the teachers union says that the educational system is underfunded - they always say that. That's their role, to try to get more money for teachers. As Samuel Gompers once put it, the goal of a trade union is alway 'More!')
But seriously, what is happening?
Are class sizes being reduced, so that we have the same number of teachers teaching fewer kids? That may not be a bad thing, but I haven't heard this is happening.
Is the government lying, and funding isn't being increased in proportion to, say, the negotiated wage increases? (They got 16% over 5 years, 2005 through 2011, that's about 3% a year.)
Is more money being spent on non-staffing costs?
All this is very confusing... could you get to the bottom of this, Crawford, because the facts as you've given us them (dwinding enrollments, staff costs proportional to enrollment, increasing costs, budget shortfalls) don't make sense.
Neale Adams
reallife
11-05-2009
Sharing
Most of the teachers I know put in a decent day's work but I have a hard time believing that "Most teachers work 10-14 hours per day". Not even the the BCTF would expect me to swallow that. Nor are the areas near schools any more dangerous than other parts of communities. Even if your statements were true, there is no reason that teachers cannot afford to pay for parking like the rest of us.
Like other taxpayers, the constant demand for more government spending has me reaching near the bottom of my pocket.