Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to return to my line of questioning with the Minister of Education, Culture and Employment and see if I can, one last time, try and get some clarity as to two conflicting statements and a package of fact sheets, which the Minister tabled the other day.
I would like to know from the Minister when a Junior Kindergarten Program starts, say in September of 2014, will the school district that runs that program get the money in September 2014, or will it have to wait a full year to get it in September 2015 like they do now for most students? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister of Education, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. My department met with the superintendents of all regions and those 23 communities are rolling out their junior kindergarten programming. Part of the package will be for them to utilize the PTR, the funding that will be allocated towards the Junior Kindergarten Program. Mahsi.
Thanks. I think that was a yes, but I’m still not sure and I would really like to get that question clarified and I think the school boards would as well. However, I guess I have to leave it at that.
The Minister has spoken in regards to the fact sheets and he has spoken, as well, in his statements to the pupil-teacher ratio and stated that we are 13.8 to 1. Across Canada the best PTR is 11.8 students to 1 in Newfoundland; the worst, so to speak, is 16.8 students to 1 in British Columbia. So I’d like to ask the Minister, we are currently at 13.8, but the road that we are on seems to be taking us to put our student-teacher ratio back to 16 to 1, the legislated PTR.
Is that the design of the Minister and the department that we will make sure that we go from 13.8 to 1 to 16 to 1 and put us at the very top of the list, which is the worst? Thank you.
Mahsi. The ratio will vary from school board to school board. Some would have around 14.5, I believe, and some would have 15, 15.5, 16 and a couple of the school boards will be just beyond 16. But I did commit in this House that I will be subsidizing those individuals who work beyond 16 to 1. So as the fact sheet indicates, we’re at 13.8 at this point and then according to our legislation it’s 16 to 1. So that’s where we’re getting back to our legislation level. Mahsi.
Thank you. I totally understand that things vary. We have small schools, we have large schools, and yes, we absolutely vary. The average across the territory is 13.8 to 1.
The Minister just said, if I heard him correctly, we’re moving back to 16 students to 1, 16 to 1. Is that what I heard? Am I correct in what the Minister said? If that’s the case, do we really want to go to the top of the list and be worst in the country for PTR? Thank you.
When we talk about legislation passed by this House, 16 to 1. So there has been a generous contribution over the last decade because we had money, we had funds at that time which we don’t at this point. In order to roll out the junior kindergarten, we won’t be the worse. British Columbia, as you see here, is 16.8, we are 16 to 1. Yes, it may be at the bottom, but it’s something to work with.
Then we have our Finance Minister in Ottawa meeting with the Finance Minister of Canada. There could be some changes coming. Certainly, we can re-evaluate our situation at that time. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I will try to be short. Lastly, I would just like to ask a question of the Minister with regards to a couple of comments on the fact sheets, which bothered me. I did say earlier that something in the Minister’s statement was disturbing and the fact sheets were disturbing as well.
There were two statements which I have difficulty with. “It is not unreasonable to expect the education authorities to absorb and plan for a minor decrease of 0.4 to 1 percent over a three-year period.” That’s hardly a fact, Mr. Speaker. The numbers are a fact, but the expectation is not a fact. I would also like to say, in another sentence from the fact sheet, “With the size of the education authorities’ budgets and their flexibility on how they spend their budgets, we are confident that they can manage the successful introduction of junior kindergarten.” I would like to ask the Minister how those two statements can be considered factual. Thank you.
I’m glad the Member raised that profile. The department expects that YCS will not only look carefully at the cost of JK, $1.2 million, but also how they can restructure their overall programming in order to absorb the $436,000 that the Member referred to earlier, Member Bromley. This should not be an unreasonable undertaking given that their overall budget has consistently been around $18 million from this government to the school board. This is an area that can be absorbed.
The $436,000 represents approximately 2 percent of the overall budget. That’s where it’s at, Mr. Speaker.
