Students at Liverpool Regional High School recently voted to get rid of the former Warriors logo as they believed it to be an offensive depiction of an indigenous man. Photo Courtesy: LRHS
The Fraser Institute recently published a report titled Spending in Public Schools in Canada: 2020 Edition. It looks at spending figures, enrollment numbers and standardized test scores.
In Nova Scotia since 2012, the per-student spending has risen 7.1 per cent compared to 2018/19 (when data was last available). In terms of enrollment, that figure is down 3.3 per cent.
Alex Whalen an analyst with the Fraser Institute says the increased spending is not bearing fruits.
“The interesting thing about Nova Scotia is that they spend a lot more on education but they haven’t seen an increase in performance.”
One thing the survey also revealed was Nova Scotia has low enrollment in independent schools. Whalen says the figure is hard to pin down exactly but that Nova Scotia trails provinces that have high independent enrollment “By multiple levels of multiplication.”
Whalen went on to say “British Columbia spends significantly less (on average) than Nova Scotia on education, yet experiences higher test scores. We found they have far higher independent enrollment, this study stops short of giving actual recommendations but it was an interesting finding.”
The trend is similar across most Atlantic provinces with every province posting an increase in spending and a decrease in enrollment except Newfoundland and Labrador who had reduced spending by 3.3 per cent while seeing enrollment drop 1.9 per cent.
The country as a whole looks different. Canada spends more now, the national spending per student is up 2.9 per cent while enrollment is up 1.9 per cent.
