Funding promised for improved infrastructure in schools
Funding promised for improved services and infrastructure in Quebec schools
The status of Quebec’s public education system was encapsulated in the minds of many by the image of thousands of parents forming human chains around more than 600 schools in 2016 to protest against cutbacks they said were crippling their children’s future.
Years of cuts and a lack of maintenance led to crumbling, mouldinfested institutions that were forced to close and schools filled to 200 per cent of their intended capacity. Worse still was the lack of personnel to help children with learning and behavioural difficulties, hindering their advancement and that of their peers, parents and teachers groups said.
In its budget Tuesday, the government of Quebec said it has heard the pleas and pledged to respond. Following consultations held in fall 2016, the government announced it had decided to increase education spending by 4.2 per cent for 2017-2018 and invest $3.4 billion over the next five years in infrastructure and personnel, including 1,500 additional staff to be hired by September to aid students with special needs.
“The young are the future of Quebec,” Finance Minister Carlos Leitão said. “We have to focus on the potential of our youth by providing a stimulating and modern learning atmosphere, from daycare to higher education institutions.”
In particular, funding was promised for improved infrastructure, and for more staff to help detect and treat learning disabilities.
But teachers groups were skeptical, saying the government’s pledges fail to make up for past cuts. They also questioned the government’s ability to deliver.
“It’s an electoral budget that is coming 18 months before the next provincial elections,” said Sylvain Mallette of the Fédération autonome de l’enseignement teachers’ union. “It does not respond to the needs of students or teachers. We are still in a reality … where we have to choose which of our students will get services and which we will have to abandon on the side of the road. That is the reality.”
Given the lack of available personnel in Quebec for psychological or support services and the limited time frame, school boards will never be able to fulfil the budget’s promise to hire 1,500 additional service staff by September, Mallette said.
Parti Québécois finance critic Nicolas Marceau said earlier cuts by the Liberals have already led to negative effects on young students that will last for years. Given the government’s record of broken promises on education spending, he said, “I don’t have any reason to believe them now.”
François Legault, leader of the Coalition Avenir Québec, said the Liberals’ slashing of education spending to an increase of less than one per cent in its first two years, followed by increasing it to close to four per cent in the last two years of its mandate, represents a cynical exercise in political funding “that is the opposite of good management.”
Members of Montreal’s business community said the announcement of greater funding for higher education responded
It’s an electoral budget that is coming 18 months before the next provincial elections.
to their hopes.
“Businesses in the Montreal area are concerned about the availability of qualified resources, qualified talent down the road,” said Michel Leblanc, president of the Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal. “If they are to invest now, they need to know that in five or 10 years down the road they will be able to hire who they need.”