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PAGE 4 THE CANADIAN STATESMAN, AUGUST 1,2001 Ecker gives report g* r t j TjUuu a tailing grade n MEOffs BY MIKE RUTA Stuff Writer DURHAM -- Education Minister Janet Ecker says a report that claims education funding has not kept pace with enrolment growth and inflation is inaccurate. Last month The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives released, 'Manufactured Crisis -- A Report Card on Ontario's Student Focused Funding Formula'. Author Hugh Mackenzie states the education funding funding formula introduced in the 1998/99 school year "has served as a smokescreen for a massive cut in the resources allocated for elementary and secondary education in Ontario". "There's always been a debate in education that more money is needed," needed," she said. "And I've asked previous previous ministers (of education), and they don't ever remember a time •( when a school board administrator said to a minister of education, 'thank you, we have enough'." JANET ECKER Complaints about education funding aren 't new. The report compares yearly funding funding levels per student before and since the Tories came to power in 1995 and makes adjustments for enrolment enrolment growth and inflation. Based on those numbers, states Mr. Mackenzie, the government's claim that per student funding has increased increased under the formula is incorrect. incorrect. Founded in 1980, the centre's mandate is to conduct and encourage research on social and economic justice justice issues. Ministry data does show school operations and capital funding has increased by $385 million since the government took power in 1995, states Mr. Mackenzie. But if adjusted for growth and inflation, maintaining the 1995 level of real expenditure per student would require $16.135 billion, billion, resulting in a shortfall of $2.73 billion. "Contrary to the government's claim that it has increased funding per student since it was elected, funding on a real per-student basis has actually been reduced by nearly $2.3 billion since 1995," states the report. "Contrary to the government's government's claim that its formula was merely redressing inequities in the previous funding system, the data clearly show that the formula is simply simply a disguise for significant cuts in resources allocated to education. The total gain for previously under-resourced under-resourced boards -- Catholic, northern and French language -- is less than $88 million since 1997; the total loss for other boards, since 1997, is just ■over $1 billion." However, Ms. Ecker disputed the report. "They're wrong," she said in an interview. "First of all, in funding we firmly believe in calculating actual dollars spent as opposed to playing with figures." In 1995, she said it cost $12.9 billion billion to deliver education in Ontario, including property taxes and government government grants. This school year, Ms. Ecker said $13.8 billion in actual dollars would be spent. "That's a growth above enrolment," enrolment," she said. Ms. Ecker said there is no inflation inflation factor in the formula and there never has been in government spending. spending. The centre's report includes inflationary inflationary elements like the cost of cigarettes that have no effect on education education costs, she said. And because the government reduced reduced the number of school boards and school board politicians, $800 million more is being spent in the classroom than in administration, said Ms. Ecker, so the report is not comparing apples with apples. Beyond that, Ms. Ecker said the report's starting point is wrong because because it includes costs for the teacher pension plan and for the Ministry of Education itself, numbers the government government docs not include in its spending figures. Examining different different areas of the province, the report concludes Greater Toronto Area school boards have been hardest hit, losing $728 million, or 12.1 percent of their funding since 1995. The Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board's real per-student operating operating funding is down about four per cent, according to the report. Ms. Ecker said complaints about funding arc not new. Just Like Magic!! providing petterheaiw andwi Clarington resident, Susan Farmer, lost 60lbs. and 67 1/2". "I enjoy working with the girls in Bowmanville. The program was easy to follow and I now know exactly what I need to do to keep the weight off." Our health counsellors want to help you reach your personal weight loss goals. 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