Manitoba delays education funding overhaul to do more consultations

The Manitoba government says it needs more time for consultations before it revamps the way it pays for kindergarten to Grade 12 education.

Education Minister Wayne Ewasko said he now hopes the new funding model will be in place by the 2024-25 school year.

"I'm not calling it a delay," Ewasko said Friday, adding that many school divisions have new trustees after the October elections and the province wants more time for consultations on the new model.

"In order to get it right, I think it is going to take a little bit more time.Anybody saying that we possibly bit off more than we can chew I think has some short-sightedness."

The funding overhaul was previously slated to be in place by the 2023-2024 school year.

In an emailed statement, the president of the Manitoba Teachers' Society said educators, students and parents didn't expect to have to wait another year for the new funding model and teachers are disappointed by the delay.

"You can't even talk about equitable funding, unless there's enough of it. So we're insisting the funding must be adequate. It must be stable," James Bedford said.

"After six years of chronic underfundingand short-changing our most vulnerable and high-needs students the system is overdue for a course correction."

The province announced the members of the group leading consultations on the funding overhaul in February, and shortly before that unveiled its funding commitments for the 2022-23 school year, including a freeze on education property taxes for the second consecutive year.

That came after the province said last November it was putting together a team to develop a new model to replace its current reliance on education property taxes.

Critics have denounced that system as inequitable, since it means school divisions with a larger business base get a bigger pool of money.

The Progressive Conservative government pledged in 2019 to eliminate the tax, which municipalities collect for school boards.

At the time, some raised concerns over how the province would cover the $830 million in revenue that came from the education tax at that point.