Education Funding. A Brief to the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services from the British Columbia Teachers' Federation. BCTF Education Funding Brief
Author: British Columbia Teachers' Federation (BCTF) (Canada)
Date: 2015-09-00
Type: Legal/Legislative/Regulatory Materials
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Educational Finance,Financial Support,Elementary Secondary Education,Public Education,Government Role,Resource Allocation,Budgeting,Teacher Education,Adult Basic Education,English (Second Language),Access to Education,Curriculum Development,Mental Health,Private Schools

The British Columbia Teachers' Federation (BCTF) would like to express its appreciation for the recommendations made on funding for K-12 education in the past two reports of the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services (the Committee). The BCTF does not like to be repetitive, but the situation with funding of public education has, unfortunately, not improved, despite the best efforts of the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services--as well as of others who support public education. The Committee, in November 2014, called for the government to undertake the following: (1) Provide stable, predictable, and adequate funding to enable school districts to fulfill their responsibility to provide continued equitable access to quality public education, and to meet required repair and maintenance needs; (2) Provide adequate capital funding to school districts for facility improvements, seismic upgrades, and additional schools in rapidly growing communities; (3) Provide support for proposed new K-12 initiatives such as personalized learning and enhanced trades and technology training; and (4) Provide resources to identify and address the growing number of students with special needs and those with minimal English language skills. Also, in November 2013, the Committee called for the following: (1) Provide sufficient funding for the K-12 system to enable BC students to become top performers nationally; and address cost increases for school districts (e.g., rising BC Hydro rates); and (2) Review the increasing demands on school district budgets and ensure that funding is appropriately directed to meet the growing support required for students with special needs. The above are previous Committee recommendations to government--and the Federation wholeheartedly agrees with them. The BCTF issues the following recommendations for consideration by the Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services (the Committee) for the next report: (1) Act on the recommendations from the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services of the past two years that have called for additional funding for K-12 public education; (2) Increase public education funding to ensure that the Teacher Education Fund is actually adding teachers to increase support for areas of greater need, rather than just making up for other teaching positions that have been cut; (3) Reinstate tuition-free education for adults taking adult basic education to upgrade secondary courses so they can apply to post-secondary training programs, and for adults needing to learn English as a second language; (4) Increase K-12 public education funding to cover all the costs downloaded to school districts, as well as inflationary costs; (5) Provide the time and resources necessary for a successful implementation of the curriculum changes mandated by the Ministry of Education; (6) Provide funding to address issues of student mental health; and (7) Eliminate the funding for independent schools, on a gradual basis, starting by reducing the funding for all qualifying independent schools to 30% of the per capita amount for public schools in the district in which the school is located. Appended to the report are: (1) What's new in public education funding?; (2) What about the Teacher Education Fund--Did it make a difference?; (3) Why does adult education support the economic and social needs of BC and Canada?; (4) Class composition 2014-15 update; and (5) Independent school funding increasing at a faster rate than public school funding.