The first is the importance of investing in education. As a society, we have lots of choices about where we spend money. Traditionally, we spend money in land, labour and capital. Only recently have governments come to recognize the importance of education. In his work in the 1960s, Ted Schultz concluded that the rate of return on society's investment in education is higher than in any other sector or target.
Public education is the very backbone of our form of democratic society.
It provides a set of common, shared experiences that move us a long way toward equality of educational opportunity. Children do not come to school with equal backgrounds and we rely on our school systems to level the playing field. It is essential that we continue our system of equalization of funding for public education. The manner in which we manage or govern our various educational programs is important. Typically in Canada, we fall somewhere in between - central control for some portions of our school offerings, and some parts under local school district control.