VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – The debate over education funding always causes headaches for parents and the latest report from the Fraser Institute won’t help.
The think-tank’s Deani Van Pelt says their research shows spending on schooling in BC has increased dramatically over the last ten years.
“I think it’s very important that all of us, every taxpayer, every citizen, every parent, teacher, grandparent, is aware that the amount of money being dedicated to education has been increasing,” she says.
Van Pelt says they took several factors into account when crunching the numbers.
“Our numbers took a look at the change in inflation, we adjusted for price changes and we adjusted for student enrollment. So when we look at expenditures on a per-student basis and we look at it in 2014 dollars, that has gone up for example, for the province of British Columbia by 18.3 per cent.”
But a report from the left-leaning Canadian Centre for Policy Alternative calls into question those numbers.
It’s studies show education funding in BC has dropped by what amounts to 1.5 billion dollars since 2004.