Technically, [the Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario] ETFO legally negotiates with the school boards.
Correct me if I am wrong, but Kathleen Wynne’s threat to reduce salary raises from three to two percent is really an empty threat because school boards are funded for each student enrolled, not for salary differentials among the public, separate, and two French boards. There may be different allocated funding for northern students, those with special needs, English Language Learners, and for other reasons. While there is the framework agreement, individual boards and the union may negotiate different agreements within the framework.
In the end, it won’t look good for Mme. Wynne and the Ontario Liberals if the public finds out that Catholic school students are getting more funding per student than public school students living in the same area [because ETFO wouldn't agree to the original framework proposal by the Ontario Public School Boards Association and the government].
Saturday, February 14, 2009
All Catholic and public school students are equal. I think?
Here is a comment I left on Crux's blog:
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4 comments:
But it is true, and has been true when the Conservatives under Harris removed school board's ability to tax locally, and Harris govt created a flawed funding formula.
Although the liberals won in 2003 saying they would change this flawed formula, they have only tinkered around the edges.
Thus a Catholic student who resides in the same geographical area as a public school student receives more funding. This is an equity issue considering that about 77% of Ontarians are public school supporters in comparison to 33% of Catholic school supporters. Thus Catholic schools get more funding and thus get to provide better services and more programs serving alot less students.
I'm not sure how the school funding is run in Ontario, but in Alberta when they do the census they ask every Albertan which schoolboard they want their tax dollars to go to.
Then the tax dollars are divided by population between the schoolboards. It's a bit different than a per student system as non-children bearing families can donate to either schoolboard.
However, it seems fair to me. Perhaps that is where the differential is coming from?
In Ontario, funding goes to the school boards per student. Individual taxpayers and businesses do not get a say where the education portion of their taxes go. Taxpayers pay to the provincial governemt who then distributes funding to the school boards peer students. As mentioned, there is extra funding for special education and ESL students. There is extra funding per students for French language boards to cover translation costs. Northern Ontario boards get extra money for long distance school busing.
As an added note, the school boards in Ontario do not have the power to collect taxes from the local taxpayers.
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