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Rising per-pupil spending soaking up more
government funds
CanWest News Service
Fri
28 Jan 2005
Byline: Sarah Schmidt
Source: CanWest News Service

OTTAWA - Even though school enrolment is down in most
provinces, per-pupil spending is up, preventing governments from reallocating
funds to programs that support Canada's aging population, a new study
concludes.

The C.D.
Howe Institute
says dramatic enrolment declines in most provinces since the mid-1990s should
have freed up money for health care and elderly benefits. Instead, all but two
provinces Newfoundland and Labrador and New Brunswick increased total spending
on education. And in these two jurisdictions, funding didn't fall as fast as
enrolment, meaning per-student funding jumped by 23.9 per cent and 9.3 per
cent respectively.

Only Ontario has seen its spending rise (4.1 per cent) at about the same
rate as enrolment growth (3.9 per cent) since 1996/97.

Even in Alberta, where enrolment is only up slightly over these years (at
0.8 per cent), spending jumped 32.9 per cent in real dollars, translating into
a per-pupil grant increase of 31.9 per cent.

Overall, student enrolment in Canada dropped 1.6 per cent in this period,
while total spending increased by 11.3 per cent. This means per-pupil spending
increased by an average of 13.1 per cent in Canada.

Prince Edward Island saw the most dramatic rise enrolment dropped 8.5 per
cent, while spending increased 34 per cent, translating into a per-pupil
spending increase of 46.4 per cent.

"The numbers were a little surprising to me. In some provinces, you see
per-pupil spending rising by more than 40 per cent in just eight years. That's
a lot," author Yvan Guillemette, a policy analyst at the C.D. Howe, said in an interview.

But student achievement based on the results on standardized tests didn't
improve with additional funding, he said.

"(In) the provinces that increased the funding the most, did student
achievement increase the most? We don't see a correlation. It's a little bit
worrisome to know these two things are happening falling enrolment translates
into huge funding increases, and we're not really buying anything for it.
We're not seeing higher student achievement."

The study points out that in the next four school years, kindergarten to
Grade 12 enrolment is projected to drop by an average of 6.8 per cent. From
2009/10 to 2013/14, enrolment is expected to drop another 6.3 per cent in
Canada.

The study says provincial governments need to start making better decisions
about public expenditures because Canada's aging population in the coming
years will drive up the costs of other social programs.

"In the area of primary and secondary education, though, the opposite
should be true. With a declining share of youngsters in the population,
governments should be able to spend relatively less on their education and
redirect resources E," the study states.

Story Type: Business
Note: EDs: National
breakdown is available at: www.cdhowe.org/pdf/ebrief_10.pdf
Length: 444 words