Drummond Report:
How education, NHS fare.
Page A3
ST. CATHARINES — Niagara’s education czars were busy Wednesday afternoon trying to dissect and digest Don Drummond’s long-awaited deficit-busting report and its implications for schools, students and parents across the region.
With education representing $ 21.9- billion in spending in 2010- 2011 province- wide, Drummond’s committee recommended cuts, layoffs and user fees across the system.
The report says despite dwindling enrolment across Ontrio, spending on education has continued to increase.
“Recent trends have led to a status quo in elementary and secondary education expenditures that is not sustainable given the government’s fiscal constraints,” he said.
The report says the province’s full- day kindergarten program, increasing compensation costs for workers and the current funding model for programming, capital projects and estimated salary increases will create a $4.4-billion shortfall in funding by 2017-2018.
To battle that deficit, Drummond said full-day kindergarten should be scrapped or its full implementation delayed. He also calls for an increase in class size to 23 students in primary classrooms from 20. High school classes would jump to 26 from 24.5 students.
Drummond also calls on the province to raise teachers’ retirement age to help contain escalating pension costs.
User fees to offset some transportation costs and for students who take additional high school classes beyond the 32 credits required to graduate are also the recommendations.
“There are some phase-in and phase- out of some programs,” he said. “That will require a great deal of consultation.”
Crocco worries increasing user fees, especially those for students returning to upgrade credits after graduation, could hurt access to both secondary and postsecondary education. In Niagara Catholic, between 4% and 5% of students return to upgrade.
“Every one of our students has an individual journey,” he said. “Plans change. Because of experiences or co-op … if there is going to be a fee attached, I’m concerned about students who might not be able to afford that.”
Crocco said what the report makes clear is that the fiscal picture is difficult.
“The report has not insulated anyone from review,” he said.
In all, Drummond’s voluminous report contains 27 recommendations for elementary and secondary education and 30 recommendations from postsecondary education.
On the post-secondary front, Drummond wants the province to encourage colleges and universities to cut overlapping programs and specialize their mandates. He calls on the government to scrap its recently announced 30% tuition reduction in favour a realigned student aid system that targets students in greater financial need.
He also recommends the government grow funding for postsecondary education by 1.5% per year until 2017-2018.
Niagara College acting president Steve Hudson said the recommendation to revisit all student aid programs is a good one.
“It can be challenging for students to understand what they’re likely to receive,” he said. “Revisiting the overall model makes a lot of sense to me.”
Hudson said he disagrees with a recommendation that would limit colleges’ abililty to grant degrees. That would hurt vocational programs, like nursing or finance, which require degrees for certification.
“Work you used to be able to do with a diploma 10 years ago, you can no longer do without a degree,” he said. recommended.
District School Board of Niagara education direct or Warren Hoshizaki said he’s not surprised by most of the initiatives proposed by Drummond. The board will be paying close attention to what the government decides to implement.
“Some of the suggestions, especially the ones around nonteaching positions, it would be hard to visualize the schools running as efficiently and as effec- tively without our support staff,” he said.
“That would have a direct effect, there is no question about that.”
Hoshizaki said increasing class sizes would change the learning environment in the classroom.
“We know it does have an impact in the classroom,” he said.
He said delaying full- day kindergarten is preferable to an complete elimination of the program.
“If it’s for saving money and reducing the deficit, then that might be a responsible way without eliminating it,” he said. “It would be disappointing to the system if they dropped full-day kindergarten.”
Niagara District Catholic School Board education director John Crocco predicted the report will have a wide impact on the province. He anticipated Ontario will consult stakeholders, including boards of education, before implementing any of