Speaking Notes
Janet McDougald
Annual Organizational Meeting of the Board
“Fix the Formula: Fund Peel Students Fairly”
Thank you Beryl for your nomination, and your kind words. And to my trustee colleagues for your support, and for the confidence you have placed in me. I very much appreciate it.
When asked to speak I often start by saying that it is my privilege to serve as Chair of the Peel District School Board. That word—privilege—is purposeful. Because though the role requires a lot of work, it is also an honour to serve—and to be supported by my colleagues.
Though, really, the same is true for each of us. Because we have all been selected, and given the privilege to serve by the residents in our community. And that is a responsibility I know we all take seriously.
I was reflecting on that process last Monday when we were together for the 25-year Club. 1988 doesn’t seem that long ago. I clearly remember when I made the decision to take a run for school trustee. I had been an involved parent, and thought I could make a difference. Hey, try it for a few
years-right? And 25 years later, here I am!
At the time, I thought it was a great way to bring the voice of parents and taxpayers to the board—and I still do. But what I have learned is that there is an even more important role for trustees to play—that of advocate. We have called it different things—sometimes activist, sometimes champion, but it all comes down to advocacy.
And through multiple governments, ministers of education, policies and decisions we have—collectively—done just that. We have stood up for the students of Peel.
Now, admittedly, not all have welcomed the advocacy role—especially those in provincial power at the time —we are not a board that looks for trouble—but we are determined and focused on—serving the needs of the children of Peel. That work is not a popularity contest—it is a duty. There is a great quote from William Faulkner, “Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion...If people all over the world...would do this, it would change the earth.”
Well, we don’t expect to change the earth, but we do expect—and it should be expected of us by our community—that we will fight as hard, and work as hard and advocate as hard as we can to make sure our students get what they deserve.
And this begins with the ideas of equity and fairness. We talk a lot about these ideas in terms of inclusion, access and opportunities. It is even in our Mission, Vision and Values...we respect differences and treat everyone fairly and equitably...is a key character attribute.
But there’s another way to look at fairness and equity – how we’re funded as a Board. Specifically how we are funded—or not funded -- for special education.
I’m pleased to join my trustee colleagues in our priorityfor the province to fix the special education formula and fund Peel students fairly now. To keep it simple – there are three messages we want to convey:
- Ontario has a flawed and outdated overall funding formula, which the government needs to fix now but the area that needs to be dealt with first - is special education.
- Everyone has a stake, as the current funding model has a direct or indirect impact on every student we serve. Getting the special education funding we deserve will benefit all students.
- There is a solution to special education funding, one that is all about fairness and equity – and we can do something about it.
The Peel Board believes all children can learn. Children have the right to the best education available, and we as a Board have an obligation to acknowledge and respect their varying abilities. Our mission reflects that commitment.
So, how many special education students do we
support? ---- About 13,550 who have some identified exceptionality. Another 8,500 or so fall into that non-identified category. They’re getting special education help too, and their numbers are upabout 109% from 2006 to 2012.
All together then, special education supports about 22,000 students. That’s a pretty high percentage of our 153,000 or so students. Especially when it comes to funding the support these students need and deserve.
There are two main sources of special education funding.
One is called SEPPA – Special Education grant per pupil amount. Just like it sounds, we and every board get a set amount for each student. Not special education students, but each student overall.
SEPPA is based on total enrolment – a fair and equitable formula. For us, that funding comes to $99 million this year, just over 60% of our total special education grants.
The other big chunk of funding comes from HNA – High Needs Amount. It is also a per student amount. It’s 30.6% of our grants, and presently comes to $50 million.
If SEPPA is based on funding for every student, what is HNA based on? Here’s where things get complex.
Although based on total enrolment, the HNA funding is variable. Going back over 10 years, the province asked school boards to report their rate of special education students. That would be the benchmark for funding going forward.
The problem was that different boards did the calculations in very different ways.Regardless of this flaw, this process occurred over 10 years ago! That is where the lack of fairness begins.
We recognize that needs vary between boards. However, the per student amount is dramatically different across Ontario.
Based on the reported needs, the HNA grants range from a high of $1,700 per student at the top to a low of $339 at the very bottom. The unfortunate news—that very bottom amount is the Peel Board funding.
In contrast, the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board, serving the same communities, receives $375 per student. Our neighbouring Halton District School Board gets $601 per student.And we get $339. Again we recognize boards’ needs vary but it’s the size of the funding variations that are unacceptable.
The HNA grant is a vital source of funding. And we are at the bottom. It is pretty clear that the process to calculate it -is flawed. It’s not scientifically based. It’s out of date.It‘s not equitable or fair. Due to this flawed funding formula, we in the Peel Board face a serious shortfall in special education funding.We need to fix the formula and fund Peel students fairly.
With our special education funding, we may serve 22,000 students. Yet the level of that funding affects all 153,000 of our students.
Special education funding has to cover every student identified as having an exceptional need, plus all of the other students who haven’t been identified yet. Our special needs, and the severity of those needs, have both been rising.
If we look at the difference between our total grants and revenue for special education, and our actual expenses, we fall short by about $14 million. In other words, we spend $14 million more than we get.
That is not an overspending problem but rather an underfunding problem!
So where does that leave us?
That $14 million shortfall we have in special education has to be made up from somewhere. I know we all believe that supporting the needs of our special education students, to the fullest of our capabilities, is the right thing to do. To fill the gap and cover the funding shortfall, we have no choice but to take funding from other parts of the budget, from other departments and programs.
This is where a flawed funding formula begins to affect all children. It doesn’t have to be this way – and there is a logical solution.
There is some good news. The provincial government realizes that many school boards, not just Peel, find the special education funding formula unfair and there is a newer, more accurate statistical model.
This model looks at all kinds of socio-economic and demographic aspects of a community, like family income, immigrant status, level of education, and more. This is a sophisticated model, refined down to the level of postal codes. What it does is predict the incidence of special education needs in a community.International experts in special education support this model.
Right now, this model is used for just over 1% of the HNA. We feel this model should be used to calculate the almost all the HNA.
So, what would that mean to Peel Board? Remember, right now we’re 72nd out of 72 boards in the HNA grants per student. If we were just somewhere in the middle of pack, we estimate that we would receive an additional $14-$16 million in funding. We think that using the prediction model would put us right about there.
With another $14 -$16 million each and every year, our $14 million shortfall disappears (interesting that these two amounts are the same). Our spending would be inside the funding envelope. That would eliminate the pressure we feel to cut away at other budgets. In fact, by fixing the formula we could do so much more—for example have greater flexibility with bussing, or upgrade more sports fields or even provide more staff to support student needs. And that helps all students.
All of this is possible. The province can fund Peel students fairly. The fix to the broken funding formula is there.The province just has to use it.
We appreciate that changing the funding for the HNA will be difficult without new money available. The province will have to redistribute funds to ensure that all students with special needs are accurately and fairly funded.
That requires political will. As we have respectfully reminded the Minister, Peel students have been disadvantaged for over 10 years – all while some other boards and their children have benefitted from an outdated funding allocation.
We’re not asking that the prediction model be used to calculate all of the HNA all at once. Next year, at least 25% of HNA funds could be based on the model, going up to 90% over four years. The prediction model can be updated annually to reflect changes in community demographics and board data. We think that’s fair.
I want to assure the community—and our political representatives-- that this is not an adversarial process. Our MPPS were key players in helping to increase our Learning Opportunities grant(LOG), and we will be going out to them before the school council sessions in the new year to specifically ask for their help, as our partners, in helping to fix the formula. I know we can count on their support. Letters went to them today to let them know to expect a call from their trustee to meet about this issue.
But this is not just “an issue” for this board—this is “the issue” for this board. And we know the province has many competing and important issues to deal with. We want ours –our issue of fairness—in the agenda. So in the new year we will be asking our staff, our parents, our school councils our faith leaders and community partners to make sure the province hears how important this issue is for Peel. In fact, I already gave notice of that process to our very eager school councils last Thursday night at the Great Start event. You have a copy of that presentation at your desk.
We even have a twitter hash tag #FixtheFormula we want people to use if you they are social media friendly.
When it comes to special education funding, we’re not looking for the same share as any other particular board – we simply want a fair share for our students.
It goes back to what I mentioned at the outset. Fairness and equity is at the heart of what we do, in delivering programs, supporting our students, and creating an inclusive environment. We think fairness and equity should guide how we’re funded too.
When that happens, our special education students – and all students – win. To me, that is what advocacy is all about—raising our voice to ask for fairness for Peel students
Thank you again, for your confidence and support. I look forward to working together to make sure the province does fix the formula and fund Peel students fairly.
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