Educational funding is provided almost entirely by the province under a block grant system although board flexibility is restricted by provincial regulation of budget allocations. The government advised school boards that there would be substantial reduction in the numbers of school districts, from 75 to 37, by the summer of 1996. The government announced April 9 that the recommendations of the committee examining restructuring to maintain 41 districts and amalgamate the remaining 34 into 16 districts was accepted and will be acted upon. The province, in 1994, legislated a reduction in the number of school boards from 181 to 57 to serve the province's 530,000 students. 41 are urban or regional public boards.
Legislation also provides for three conseils scolaires.
The new educational governance structure came into effect January 1995. The school boards associations launched and were successful in a court challenge of the legislation. The government has appealed but this has not yet been heard. The governance reform has removed public board access to the property tax base although provision is made for referendum approved special levies. Minority faith separate school boards continue to have access to the property tax base but only up to the amount that would be collected by the province.