Schools in more affluent areas across Ontario continue to raise so much money that they bring in almost $200 million more than what the government provides to lower-income communities to try and make up the gap.An analysis of the province’s education funding formula, to be released Monday, says the “learning opportunities grant” distributes about $179 per student to schools in needy areas, while fundraising brings in $548 million to boards, or an average of $280 per student.“School-based fundraising significantly reverses the impact of the (grant) on school boards’ resources,” says the report commissioned by the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario to mark the 20th anniversary of drastic changes to how the education system was funded. It notes that the boards that receive less grant money for needy schools actually bring in more than the $280 average, and those that receive the most in learning opportunity grants, or LOGs, bring in much less than the average.“Even these numbers radically understate the upside-down equity driven by school-based fundraising … at the school level, the gap between at-risk programming needs and local fundraising potential will inevitably be even starker,” says the report by economist Hugh Mackenzie. The provincial funding formula, introduced by the Conservative government back in 1997, not only took more than a billion dollars out of the system, it also took taxing powers away from individual school boards. It continues to come under fire for flaws that unions and parent groups have urged the Liberals to fix.The Liberal government has poured billions more into education, now spending $23 billion, or $12,107 per student, when adjusted for inflation, the report notes. Ontario now ranks fifth in Canada in per-student spending.The report, however, notes much of the additional money has been spent on class size reductions, and full-day kindergarten. Both of those ...
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