Province announces 16-person group to lead talks on Manitoba K-12 education funding overhaul

The provincehas announced the members of a group that will lead consultations on an overhaul of the funding model forkindergarten to Grade 12 education in Manitoba.

The 16-personreview team will guide the development of the new funding model, and will begin consultations with school divisions and other stakeholder organizations next week, the province said in a Friday news release.

The province is aiming to have a new model for funding K-12 education in place by the 2023-24 school year.

The provincial government announced last November that it was putting together the consultation team to guide development of a model that will replace its current reliance on education property taxes.

That system that has been denounced by critics as inequitable, since school divisions with a larger business base get a bigger pool of money.

The Progressive Conservative governmentpromised in 2019 that it wouldeliminate the tax, which municipalities collecton behalf of school boards.

Some raised concerns then about how the province would cover the $830 million in revenue that came from the education tax at that point.

The province unveiled its funding commitments for the 2022-23 school year last week, and said it will freeze education property taxes for the second consecutive year.

The province's Friday news release said Leger Research will facilitate the consultation and engagement process and collect recommendations for a new funding model, which will include creatinga formula that allocates provincial funding to school divisions and schools.

Other stakeholders will be included in future consultation phases, the province said.

The funding review team that will lead the consultations includes three representatives from the Manitoba Association of School Business Officials, three from the Manitoba School Boards Association and two from the Manitoba Association of School Superintendents.

In also includes one representative from each of a range of other organizations: the Manitoba Teachers' Society, the Manitoba Association of Parent Councils, the non-profit Family Advocacy Network, the Association of Manitoba Municipalities, the Division scolaire franco-manitobaine, the Manitoba First Nations School System, the Manitoba Federation of Independent Schools and Indigenous Services Canada.