Rural schools, vulnerable children and students who need buses to get to their schools are the beneficiaries of funding formula changes for school operating grants.
More money will be made available to the CommunityLINK grant program which funds meals and snacks for students, provides child and youth workers, and supports community schools, literacy and healthy schools initiatives for vulnerable students.
The ministry will provide an additional $1.5 million (estimated) in funding for small school districts and remote schools, with $3.7 million from the budget already targeted for the smallest school districts.
The transportation supplement will also be revised, based on population density and the number of enrolled students to provide more equitable funding for school districts that provide bus service for students.
The province also guaranteed districts which are in an enrollment decline will have 98.5 per cent of the budget as of the previous fall season protected in their new budgets.
"These changes are the product of collaboration between education partners all over B.C. all working together in the shared interest of crafting a more equitable, stable, sustainable education funding model," said Education Minister George Abbott, in a prepared release.
The total operating budget for the current school year is a record $4.721 billion, and with Friday's reallocation that will increase to $4.424 billion in 2012-13. The overall increase in the provincial school budget to pay for those programs, announced Friday, amounts to $3 million, and Matt Pearce says that's not even enough to keep pace with the expected rate of inflation.
"It's more a smokescreen," said Pearce, president of the Prince George District Teachers Association. "It's a 0.06 per cent increase in a year when inflation is expected to run at 3.2 per cent. It's actually less of a cut than they were actually planning on. With inflation, the education budget is going to lose 3.2 per cent and they're adding $3 million and making a big deal of it."
Pearce was less than impressed with the ministry's plans to help schools transport students. Knowing School District 57 is now facing a transportation budget shortfall of nearly $700,000, he said the latest announcement will not fix the problem.
"If they hadn't closed 200 schools they'd be bussing thousands of less students than they are right now and you wouldn't be spending that money on transportation," Pearce said.
"We're extremely underwhelmed as usual by the government's response to public education."
Since the 2000-01 school year, the provincial budget has increased by close to $1.4 billion, including $917 in operating funds and $407 million in one-time grants. During that time, enrollment has dropped by close to 59,000 students. The ministry expects provincial enrollment will continue to decline until 2014.
