Eight out of ten provinces recorded increases in per student spending (inflation-adjusted) in public schools

VANCOUVER—Despite common misperceptions, education spending, specifically per student spending in public schools across Canada increased in 8 of ten provinces between 2012-13 and 2020-21, finds a new study published by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.

“Contrary to what we often hear, spending is on the rise in public schools across Canada, and in most cases, it’s outpacing inflation and enrolment changes,” said Michael Zwaagstra, senior fellow with the Fraser Institute and co-author of Education Spending in Public Schools in Canada, 2023 Edition.

Annual spending in public schools in Canada increased by $7.8 billion more than was necessary to account for changes in enrolment and inflation between 2012/13 and 2020/21

The study finds that annual spending in public schools in Canada increased by $7.8 billion more than was necessary to account for changes in enrolment and inflation between 2012/13 and 2020/21.

Nationally, inflation adjusted per student spending on public schools increased by 8.3 per cent over that same time period.

Quebec experienced the largest increase at 32.9 per cent. Nova Scotia (26.9 per cent) and Prince Edward Island (19.0 per cent) experienced the next largest increases in spending per student. British Columbia (12.8 per cent) and Manitoba (7.8 per cent) also recorded substantial increases in per student spending (inflation-adjusted).

Saskatchewan (-11.6 per cent) and Alberta (-10.0 per cent) were the only two provinces to experience a decline in inflation-adjusted per student spending on public schools during this same period, with Alberta dropping from a 3rd place ranking in 2012-13 to 10th in 2020-21, and Saskatchewan from 1st to 6th.

The spending analysis includes compensation, capital and other spending as categorized by Statistics Canada. Compensation (salaries, wages, fringe benefits, and pensions) contributed the most to the total growth in spending on public schools from 2012/13 to 2020/21.

“When it comes to our children’s education, it’s important to understand exactly what’s happening with spending in public schools,” said Zwaagstra.

Media Contact:
Michael Zwaagstra, Senior Fellow, Fraser Institute

To arrange media interviews or for more information, please contact:
Drue MacPherson, Fraser Institute
drue.macpherson@fraserinstitute.org

Ambitious hatred of the Global Left for ordinary folk through our Great Bubble 

With the ambitious hatred of the Global Left for ordinary folk through our Great Bubble the period may not be blessed with a glowing name.

The problem with the view based upon intuitive theories rather than empiricism is that these pundits have long understood that the Fed will always try to depreciate the dollar. But this is not always associated with “Inflation”. Yes, it’s disguised as extending credit to “keep the recovery going”. Of course, the original promoters of the Fed understood that as “lender of last resort” – Presto! – no more recessions.

There have been 18 cyclical recessions since. In more forthright disciplines only one failure is sufficient to condemn a theory.

That recessions are impossible it is ironical that with a severe recession, their tout is that they can prevent from becoming a depression. Indeed, in the mid-1970s a Wall Street economist boasted that the Fed had prevented all six recessions since WW2 from turning into a depression. He did not know that typically there were some ten business cycles on the long expansion that concludes with a Great Financial Bubble.

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Generations of economics departments have been preaching theory rather than reviewing history

Which sets up the next Great Contraction, when most asset prices deflate.

The financial wonders of stock and bonds have reigned over much of the last decade, quite like the 1920s. That global commodity boom soared to 1920, driving the US CPI (annualized) to +16%. In 1921 commodities crashed sending the CPI to -11%. Wary of deflation the Fed kept easy monetary policies not understanding that another Great Financial Bubble was brewing up.

And as we all know that culminated in September 1929, followed by a typical Post-Bubble Contraction when most asset classes suffered deflating prices. Economists bereft of history thought it was exceptional and began dreaming up schemes to end it as well as to prevent future repetitions.

And generations of economics departments have been preaching theory rather than reviewing history.

On the previous example, commodities and “Inflation” peaked in 1863 and a decade later so did stocks and bonds. That was in 1873, the year that the esteemed Walter Bagehot published “Lombard Street”, within which he theorized that the Bank of England could prevent a contraction by easing credit. That summer, the NY Herald editorialized that nothing could go wrong, because the Treasury System would be better at providing credit than a central bank, constrained by a gold standard. On a non-backed currency, the Treasury could provide whatever credit was needed to avoid a recession.

The key concept is that there are two kinds of “Inflation”, but each had a common component—credit

In 1884, UK economists began calling unusual weakness as the “Great Depression”, which ended in 1895. There is an index of farm prices and they declined from 1873 to 1895 with only one year without a decline.

The key concept is that there are two kinds of “Inflation”, but each had a common component—credit. What’s more, the transitions from “Inflation” start with precarious excesses and are followed by deflations. The ones following the Global Commodity Boom have been brief and set up the “New Financial Era” that completes and is followed by the disaster of another long Great Contraction.

Ironically, as today’s clarions of “Inflation” are in full voice, the financial and social world is on the path to another lengthy deflation. Moreover, the transition path has been methodical and worth updating:

• Copper’s real price goes up and then down, which is the happening.
• Gold’s real price goes down and in turning up confirms the contraction. This is working out.
• Real long-dated Treasury Rates turn up in the contraction. So far, from -1% to +2%, which is becoming insufferable. The typical increase has been some 10 percentage points.
• The senior currency becomes chronically firm.

Inflation is not likely out of control, but history is getting ready for another deflation. “Inflationists” should not be positioned in their convictions.

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