PG School District to Receive Extra Funds
Prince George school trustees at their inaugural meeting earlier this month – photo 250News
Prince George, B.C. – More students mean more money for the Prince George School District.
Numbers released today by the provincial government show 42 of the province’s 60 school districts saw an increase in student enrolment. That includes another 117 students in School District 57 and 5,676 students’ province-wide.
The districts with the highest growth in numbers of students were:
- Surrey (+993)
- Langley (+697)
- Abbotsford (+484)
- Sooke (+572)
- Comox (+427)
Thanks to the overall increase, Education Minister Mike Bernier says “an extra $46.7 million…will flow to school’s districts with increased enrolments.”
“The funding boost maintains the provincial commitment to keep the average per-pupil rate the same as it was at the start of the school year,” which helps districts with their financial planning,” reads a ministry news release. “In fact, the record high average per-pupil rate will increase to $8,969 for this school year.”
The ministry is also providing funding protection to 17 districts with enrolment declines “to help mitigate the impact of those changes.”
Some of those districts showing a decline are located in the North:
- Quesnel (-28)
- Peace River South (-29)
- Peace River North (-108)
- Fort Nelson (-41)
- Stikine (-11)
- Nechako Lakes (-32)
Prince George School Board chair Tim Bennett says the extra money will be used to help the district “offer quality public education to students.”
“School District 57 is a little unique in the fact that we’re a decentralized model, so a large portion of the funding per-pupil goes directly to the school where that student is registered,” he says.
“And that is to ensure that at the school level, principals have the ability to make decisions that are going to impact students in their schools. The rest of that is used to support centralized models such as student support services, ensuring the schools are heated and maintained.”
He adds it’s also refreshing to see an enrolment increase (of roughly the same size) for the second consecutive year.
“When I was first elected, the district was in a continuing enrolment decline, the district was in funding protection, so this is a good news story. But as we continue to grow, we’ll have to closely watch the capacity in our schools to ensure that our schools can continue to meet the needs of our students.”
The provincial government attributes the overall rise in enrolment to our healthy economy.
“B.C.’s strong economy is attracting families from other provinces and other countries – and this means new students in our school system after years of decline,” says Bernier. “Our strong economy also means we have the ability to make investments like today’s and make sure every single new student if fully funded.”
Comments
The BC Liberals have always been more than a dollar short and about a decade late when it comes to properly funding public education in BC!
“Not only has education funding dropped from 3.3% of GDP in 2001 to a projected 2.5% in Budget 2016, BC has the second lowest level of education funding in the country—nearly $1000 per student below the national average.”
ht tp://nationtalk.ca/story/ccpa-analysis-finds-that-bcs-record-levels-of-k-12-education-funding-are-a-fiction
Tell me BH, are you volunteering to have YOUR taxes increased in order to fund all of your pet causes? Or are you expecting that the burden of paying for increases to education, welfare, medical, social housing, child care, prescriptions, eye care, dental care etc etc etc come from someone else?
If you can accept higher taxes, then I can at the very least accept your lobbying for higher expenditures in all areas mentioned above.
Yes, from Someone Else. whoever that is!
Not only does BH demand everything be funded, BH’s demands no pipelines, no logging, no Site C, no mines. We’re going to fund all of this from becoming a world tourist destination where people are so enthralled with our natural protected beauty that they’ll pay billions to visit. Of course, then we have the problem of the carbon footprint caused by all these cars, trains, planes and people travelling here.
BH is a typical left winger – picking out all the problems, never offering any realistic solutions.
Just the other day Hogan says a province like BC should afford bus passes for the poor and how nasty Christy Clark is. When all Christy Clark did, was take away the passes, and then give everyone $77.00, which was more than the passes cost, and her reasoning, was not all people on social assistance use public transit – some actually live in walking distance of everything. So Hogan, if elected, will likely take their $77.00 away, and give them a bus pass they don’t need. Then BH will be on here applauding restoration of bus passes, while the single mother on welfare living in 100 Mile will sure miss the $77.00 and find the bus pass she doesn’t need – cold comfort.
Well, how about this solution from a left winger to a self absorbed mighty righty, cancel support for private schools and distribute the millions of dollars freed up to the public school system. I realise that people like our Premier who don’t have any faith in a public education and don’t want one their own children might not like it, despite being the one responsible for how the public education system functions, but they can still send their children to the public schools and get the education they expect normal children to get. The public system is already paying the maintenance costs for all our public schools, so the increase in pupils as a consequence will be easily absorbed and the extra money used to benefit all students.
The rest of your comments about Horgan are just science fiction claptrap from an alternate universe!
They don’t support private schools they support students. Private schools have to pay for their facilities out of their own pockets and are not eligible for facilities grants. The universal declaration of human rights states that elementary and fundamental education both be compulsory and free. Forcing parents to pay half is breaking international law.
What Horgan says is people with disabilities pay 642 a year now instead of 45 for a bus pass. What he purposely neglected to say was that the rate for disability was raised 924 dollars a year so those who wish to receive an annual bus pass now pay 597 more but also receive 924 more annually. Those with disabilities end up ahead by 327 per year if they subscribe to the bus pass or and extra 924 if they don’t. His quote was by raising the cost of the bus pass they are forcing people to chose between food and other basics and the ability to get around. Which in fact if he had checked into it would have realized he was wrong. In PG bus passes are not electronically read so if one chooses they can cancel the pass and still ride for free and collect the entire 77 per month
ammonra, how many more times will it need to be explained to those on the left, that private schools cost taxpayers less?
Please explain where you intend to put all of the private school students when you cancel their support?
How many more schools will you need to build? How many more desks, etc. etc. etc. will you need to buy?
Private schools cost BC taxpayers less, with the parents of the private school students picking up the tab for the difference! As a bonus, a BIG BONUS, the private school students and parents don’t have to deal with the BCTF!! That alone must be worth the price of admission, haha!
Hey….SD57, Just looking at the picture here, I see a place you can save some money, not much, but I tiny little bit. Skip the flowers, do you really need them?
Being conservative with tax dollars would be appreciated, this is the stuff that is a waste of money. I am 100% sure there is a lot more stupid little purchases that could have helped our students.
Actually, good point. Bet those poinsettias purchased to decorate the room for Christmas – sorry – I mean, the winter festival – cost a few hundred. Could’ve been spent on – I don’t know – school lunches.
Taxednmaxed.. Very good point. Thank you for calling that out. Something that needs to be looked at. Little purchases add up. – Tim Bennett
“British Columbia’s general corporate income tax rate is 11 per cent, among the lowest in Canada. Our combined federal-provincial rate is 26 per cent, among the lowest in G7 countries.”
ht tp://www.britishcolumbia.ca/invest/why-british-columbia-canada/low-business-costs/taxes/
Hey! I have a wonderful idea; how about BC raise corporate tax rates to a “reasonable” level and have that extra revenue / money go towards our children’s education? Because we now know lowering corporate tax rates does not translate into more corporate investment and more jobs created. In fact Canada’s cowardly corporate CEO’s are sitting on BILLIONS of dollars and are not re-investing it into Canada’s / BC’s economy! So where are all the new factories, projects, and more importantly, new jobs?
Nope, tax these Corps higher and invest that money, they would otherwise just sit on, in our children’s future, which is education!
ht tp://tinyurl.com/h5medbl
Hey. Once you shut down all that nasty resource based industry they won’t have any income to pay tax on so the rate won’t matter.
But fyi. Corporations pay dividends to shareholders most of whom are large pension plans or mutual funds held in rsps. Raise corporate tax dividends go down pension income goes down. Good idea. Get the retirees to pay for your wish list. Ironically two of the largest pension plans and holders of shares are teachers pension plans.
Congrats Tim, on your new position
If we shut down that nasty resource industry and quit handing out subsidies we may have enough money left over to run the province. Anyone who thinks site C is going to make BC great again is having a very bad dream.
The ministry news release states: “In fact, the record high average per-pupil rate will increase to $8,969 for this school year.”
Record high? Looks like someone missed that point, eh BH?
Raise corporate taxes? That’s BH’s go to comment. I know of a few companies that thankfully had kept a lot of funds in retained earnings! As a result, they were and are able to weather poor economic conditions.
I also know that some businesses that didn’t keep cash “in the bank” are really struggling as a result, with some shutting down with the accompanying job losses!
I wonder what kind of job BH has and what business BH works in? BH won’t say, but it must be on the taxpayer funded payroll! It’s got to be, after all, who else would hire him? I sure as heck wouldn’t, would you?
As i had suspected BH! Big wish list….no personal conviction!
You left wing ideologues always target the corporations for additional taxation because you think they are a soft target, never ever thinking that by increasing taxes on corporations, you are taking funds that would go to R&D, dividends to shareholders, facilities expansion, or just plain old survival.
For some companies an increase in taxation might just be the last straw forcing a decision to continue in business or not. What about the wages these companies pay? Are they not valuable? Are they not taxed? Do they not contribute to funding all of the services we demand?
Galt, you have lived on the public teet all your life, and obviously have no idea how life works beyond your lefty ideology. As someone once said leftys are always really really good at spending someone else’s money, but when it comes to their own, their sphincter tightens up so tight you would swear they were visiting the proctologist!
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