School spending takes off
National Post
Wed 09 Aug 2006
Page: FP17
Section:
Financial Post: Comment
Byline: Yvan Guillemette
Source: National Post

Fewer kids, more money -- does that mean Canada's
elementary and secondary schools are doing better by their students? If more
spending really was needed to boost student performance, as many claim, then
student learning would have improved dramatically over the past few years.

Yet there is scant evidence that it has, and it may be a familiar story --
that what you spend on is far more important than how much -- applies in spades
to Canadian public schools.

Statistics Canada figures released last week say enrolment in Canadian public
elementary and secondary schools was down 1.2% over a six-year period. However,
total spending was up 22% so, putting the two together, total spending per
student jumped 24%. Hence total spending per pupil in public elementary and
secondary schools nationwide, adjusting for inflation, rose by approximately 10%
in just six years.

The rise in real spending per pupil in Ontario was much more contained at
3.3% and, because Ontario accounts for close to 40% of Canadian pupils, that
brought down the nationwide increase in spending. Part of the reason for lesser
per-pupil spending growth in Ontario is that, like Alberta, enrolment increased
during the period. But provinces where enrolments declined failed to hold back
on spending accordingly. In Newfoundland and P.E.I., real spending per student
shot up more than 25%; in Quebec and Alberta, by approximately 13%.

One reason fewer pupils does not lead to corresponding savings is not all
costs can be ramped down. Existing buildings still need to be maintained, the
janitor still needs to be paid and library collections updated. But some costs
can be adjusted: Even if teacher salaries are set years in advance by collective
agreements, for example, the number of teachers can be reduced. Between 1997-98
and 2003-04, however, the number of educators increased more than enrolments --
or decreased less -- in every jurisdiction, except for British Columbia.
Notwithstanding grumbling about class sizes, there are now fewer students per
educator, on average, everywhere except in B.C. As a result, average payroll
costs for educators increased faster than inflation over the six-year period,
and educator pay per student increased even more, by 22%, or eight percentage
points more than the rate of inflation.

It would be nice if all this extra spending per student was buying better
learning but there is no correlation between recent spending increases and
improvements in student achievement. Take the School Achievement Indicators
Program (SAIP) science test, for example, which tested 13-year-olds and
16-year-olds across Canada in 1996 and again in 2004. The province that showed
the most improvement -- or the least deterioration -- in science achievement
scores between 1996 and 2004 for both 13- and 16-year-olds was Ontario, the same
province whose real per-pupil spending went up the least.

By comparison, P.E.I., Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Saskatchewan are all
provinces where real per-pupil spending increased markedly because of rapidly
dwindling enrolments. These provinces showed the worst progress on student test
scores between 1996 and 2004. Clearly, more money does not automatically equate
to better student results. At current spending levels, how we spend is much more
important than how much.

An extensive body of literature has associated class and school-level factors
with improvements in learning. Among those are a strong school and classroom
focus on academic achievement using specified curricula and standards, as well
as effective monitoring and assessment of how students perform against them.
Effective monitoring should be done using province-wide testing with
curriculum-based exams and test scores that count toward the final grade. Some
provinces, including Quebec and Alberta, have been testing both primary and
secondary school students for a relatively long time, and with results to show
for it. Other provinces remain without such a system, and they ought to consider
investing in one.

Other critical factors in improving student achievement are school choice and
competition. The three provinces with the consistently highest levels of student
achievement -- Alberta, Quebec and British Columbia -- also favour the greatest
competition between independent and public schools. Edmonton's initiative of
offering as much school choice as possible within the public system itself has
proven successful, and has been used as a template for reform in several U.S.
jurisdictions, though few Canadian boards have adopted it.

To prevent demographic change from ploddingly increasing per-student spending
even further, education ministries and school boards should enhance the role of
per-pupil funding formulas in their budgetary framework so as to tie total
spending closely to enrolment.

The demographically driven increase in per-pupil spending is projected to
continue along with general population ageing, so it is important to make sure
the extra resources are used wisely. If additional spending isn't improving
performance, schools ought to be forced to look at spending on things that would
do so. In turn, governments and education ministries are ultimately responsible
for putting in place the incentives that schools face and that determine how
schools respond to budget increases and measured performance. More reliance on
the performance discipline of standardized assessment, competition and budget
constraints to deliver good results for students would be a good place to start.

Edition: National
Story Type: Business; Opinion

Note: Yvan Guillemette is a policy analyst at the Toronto-based
C.D. Howe Institute.

Length: 852 words