Education is an investment: teachers’ association
In preparation for the expected June provincial budget, the Newfoundland and Labrador Teachers’ Association (NLTA) presented the government this week with its position on what it considers key budgetary requirements.
Finance Minister Siobhan Coady has said the budget this year will be delivered sometime in June.
NLTA president Dean Ingram said he made it clear to Coady that education must be treated as an investment and not as an expense.
“Investments in quality, wellresourced, publicly funded public education are, in effect, investments in our economy that can have a significant and sustained positive impact over time if the government is prepared to make a long-term commitment,” Ingram said in a news release.
The NLTA’S release also stated that research shows expenditures to improve public education generate positive economic results, including reductions in crime and poverty, gains in productivity and decreased costs in health care, social assistance and the criminal justice system.
Ingram said government priorities must include a robust funding of education and reflect Premier Andrew Furey’s previously stated commitments, such as an independent review of the teacher-allocation model, reinstating class sizes to at least 2008 levels, and maintaining administrative and school counsellor allocations to at least those currently in effect for the 2020-21 school year.
“It is certainly encouraging to see reference to a review of the teacher-allocation model in the minister of Education’s mandate letter — now we need to see that reflected in the upcoming budget,” Ingram stated. “If we did not see it before, the global pandemic has clearly demonstrated the direct social and economic impacts of public education and the critical roles played by the dedicated professionals who work in our schools. Investments in education are critically important, as are public-health measures to protect teachers and other staff working on the front lines in our schools.”