Education spending depends on Roger Melanson's math

Brian Gallant's Liberal government is sticking to its story that education spending is going up by more than three per cent this year,even though that is based on a selective interpretation of the budget numbers.

"Education is increasing by 3.1 per cent," Finance Minister Roger Melanson told reporters again on Wednesday, one day after he touted the figure while delivering the provincial budget.

A 3.1 per centincrease would look like a large one duringa year in which other departments are having to rein in spending. Health care funding, for example, is barely growing at all this year.

But Melanson's calculation is based on a comparison with what the previous Progressive Conservative government planned to spend in the last year not on what was actually spent.

The PCs budgeted $1.085 billion for education in 2014-15, but the final revised amount spent in the year which saw the Liberals win the election and take over halfway through was $1.118 billion.

Compared to that figure, the Liberal budget for education increases by only $425,000, or 0.038 per cent.

The 2014-15 education budget was $32.6 million over what the PCs forecast, largely because they cancelled planned cuts ahead of the election.

It must be going to administration because we don't see it at the grassroots.- Gary Crossman, education critic

PC education critic Gary Crossman says, given the Liberals's plan to lay off 249 teachers, it's plain that their claim of a 3.1 per centincrease doesn't stand up.

"It must be going to administration because we don't see it at the grassroots," said Crossman. "And with the school closures and other teacher cuts, I don't know where it's coming from."

That's possible,but the way the Liberal budget lays out education spending makes it hard to say for sure.

Transfers to school districts are decreasing to $983 million from $1.036 billion, a drop of more than $52 million.

Meanwhile, the funding for "corporate and other education services" is jumping to $57.9 million from $9.5 million.

Melanson says that doesn't mean the province's seven school districts are getting less.

"District funding is not down," he said. "If you look at the budget, it's a matter of how it's being reported. That money will be reported there, but it's going to be redistributed. I'm being told it's an accounting issue.

"Education is done in the regions, at the district level. And that's where the money will go."

Changes in expense categories

The government says several expenses have been moved out of the "school districts" category, making an apples-to-apples comparison difficult.

That includes payroll, human resources, and the cost that comes from the deteriorating value of the fleet of school buses.

The real funding for school districts, the province says, will jump to $984 million this year from $958 million last year, an increase of $26 million.

But funding for "education services," described in the budget documents as "funding for prescribed education programs" is going down: this year's budget sets aside $786 million, while last year's budget allocated $794.6 million.

And money for school buses is also being cut, to $56.9 million from $64.9 million last year.

The province says those changes will be explained further when the department's detailed spending estimates come before the legislature later this spring.

Earlier this year, former PC finance minister Blaine Higgs acknowledged than a planned cut of $32 million in last year's education budget was postponed because of the September election.

"During an election period, a lot of focus gets off the planned initiatives," Higgs said in February.

Melanson says the Liberals didn't proceed with the cuts after the electioneither, which is why the final education budget for the year was $1.118 million.

The Liberals will attempt to make up for the cancelled cuts this year, he said. "We've looked at it and we're trying to find efficiencies in the context of our principle of fairness."