Mr. Cohn, in a recent article in the Toronto Star, speaks of school boards as dysfunctional, saying that after trustees lost the power to raise revenues by setting taxes in 1997, it led to an erosion in their fiscal discipline. He goes on to say that they overspend, running up deficits and blaming the province for underfunding. These are strong claims, but not ones that reflect reality.

The Financial Accountability Office of Ontario recently released a report on Ontario budget trending from 1990 to 2023. This report shows that funding per child only increased by about $3,000 after adjusting for inflation, from just under $11,000 to just under $14,000. The majority of those increases were earmarked to offset costs incurred for provincial decisions to increase access to child care, including full day kindergarten. One might reasonably argue that schools are underfunded, considering funding has increased by barely $100 a year for the last three decades in real terms, while responsibilities have expanded significantly.

What about spending? Per Statistics Canada, Ontario spent around $15,728 per student during the 2021/2022 school year, compared to the Canada-wide average of $16,296. Not unreasonable, compared to other provinces. How about globally? The US government released in 2023 a report comparing 2019 expenditures per student from country to country. Canada was slightly above average across OECD countries, spending approximately $12,800 USD per student compared to the average of $11,300 after adjusting for purchasing power. Slightly higher than average, but still well below many other countries. So Ontario school boards spend less than the Canadian average, and Canada as a whole spends reasonably on education compared to the global average.

What conclusions can we draw based on these facts? They certainly aren’t overspending compared to schools in other regions, but they’ve received limited funding increases for decades, and they’re running a deficit as a result. In other words, they’re underfunded, and any discussions around the topic must be based on that simple fact.