Cuts to education - a call for calm

The calls for some perspective on the funding cuts to education continue.  A measured opinion was offered in this Saturday's Chronicle Herald by Paul W. Bennett, the founder and director of Schoolhouse Consulting.  He has graciously given us permission to share his thoughts here.

What’s behind funding crisis in N.S. schools?


By PAUL W. BENNETT

The Chronicle Herald - Sat, Dec 11, 2010

Our public schools and their students, or so we are told, are now under threat in Nova Scotia. Since the Education Department asked the eight provincial school boards to prepare for deep budget cuts in late October, elected trustees and top educrats have been in a tizzy. The infamous cuts will supposedly "devastate" the entire system by forcing the closure of 70 schools, costing 2,000 teachers their jobs, and slashing special education services to the bone.

Listening to the official mouthpieces of the province’s school board members and administrators, one might think Darrell Dexter’s NDP government has gone completely crazy. Digging more deeply into the critical financial state of the system and crass education politics yields a different answer.

Nova Scotia’s school system is facing a serious financial crunch for which it is little prepared. With the province’s alarming annual deficit and $13-billion debt, most reasonable Nova Scotians know that budget reductions are coming in the biggest spending areas: health, education and social services.

The Education Department’s current "planning exercise" is a legitimate attempt to not only change the annual education funding game, but to shake up a rather closed, insular system. Nova Scotia public education shows all the classic signs of "producer capture." It is the producers of education (educrats and teacher organizations), not the parents or taxpayers who really control the system.

Education Minister Marilyn More may now be learning this fact first-hand. Merely proposing serious reductions threatens what St. Francis Xavier University political scientist Peter Clancy correctly identified as the "core interests" of education: senior administration, school boards and the teachers’ union.

What are the facts? The NDP government’s initial proposal is to examine the impact of reducing education spending by $196 million over the next three years because of provincewide declining enrolments. The reason: The province is facing a further drop in Primary to Grade 12 school enrolment of 11.5 per cent by 2014-15 and the system is losing 3,000 students a year.

School boards reacted to the proposal by seizing upon the most potentially damaging scenario. It started in Chignecto Central regional board when chair Trudy Thompson expressed "shock" and claimed it meant "a devastating cut of up to 22 per cent" in education spending.

Mr. Dexter is standing firm — insisting "the cuts" come "first from administration" and, if at all possible, "not the classroom."

Not everyone is bamboozled by the "fear factor" blitz. A very astute group of Antigonish County parents known as Save Community Schools spotted something missing from the Nova Scotia School Boards Association’s tale of "a thousand cuts." There was not a single reference to cutbacks to school board administration, even though, in the premier’s words, "the first place the boards are to look for savings is in administration."

Within the Strait regional school board alone, Save Community Schools contends there is "fat" at the top of the system. Between 2004 and 2010, administrative costs for "regional board management" have risen 39 per cent, far faster than inflation and investments in student services or classroom instruction (plus seven per cent). They also note board-related governance expenses jumped by 24 per cent over this same period.

The Strait board is one of the province’s most cash-strapped boards, facing staggering enrolment declines. But even here, administrative expenses are increasing by about five times the rate of investments in student instructional services.

The Antigonish County parents are asking the right questions. Why are boards targeting the core areas first with cuts? Their actions are "telling" when it comes to "the priorities of school boards" in the province.

In championing the cause, the NSSBA is out to spook the parents whom they purport to serve. In the last round, a Public School Coalition spearheaded by NSSBA claimed they were out to "Save Grade 2" and mounted a flashy effort to sway public opinion. The current campaign amounts to the Big Scare, featuring what AIMS president Charles Cirtwill has aptly dubbed the Classroom Cuts Horror Show.

It’s hard to outsmart parents like those behind Save Community Schools. Spooking voters is not recommended for school boards whose legitimacy is being called into question. And provincial politicians backing the Big Scare had better be careful in choosing their bedfellows. The real tragedy is that Nova Scotia public education has serious structural issues and the current nonsense threatens to postpone the inevitable.

Paul W. Bennett is director of Schoolhouse Consulting, Halifax, and author of The Grammar School (2009).

You can also follow Paul W. Bennett on his blog: http://educhatter.wordpress.com/

There was a terrific editorial in today's Chronicle Herald as well - check it out: http://thechronicleherald.ca/Editorials/1216958.html