The Conference Board of Canada, Canada’s foremost independent, evidence-based applied research organization, released a report entitled, “The Economic Case for Investing in Education” on June 19, 2019. The report explores how changes in spending on publicly funded education in Ontario impact the economy and also examines the wider social and fiscal impacts.
Notable findings from the report:
- Each dollar that our provincial government spends on publicly funded education generates $1.30 in total economic benefits to Ontario. At the same time, the inverse holds true for each dollar cut from public education.
- Publicly funded education can generate social benefits, such as a healthier population, a higher standard of living, and a reduction in crime. These social benefits have a positive impact on our provincial budget because they all lessen demands for Ontario’s social assistance, public health care, and criminal justice services.
- Each additional high school graduate saves the Ontario government (on average) $2,767 each year on social assistance, health care, and criminal justice. On the other hand, each additional high school non-completer costs the province $3,128 each year.
- Through increases in public education spending, Ontario could lift its high school graduation rates to 90%, matching the highest in the country and seeing average fiscal savings of $16.4 million per year. That could accrue to total savings of $3.5 billion over the course of two decades.
- In a reverse scenario, where high school graduation rates instead fall to 82.6%, Ontario would spend an additional $18.0 million each year. Over a 20-year period, that could amount to total fiscal costs of $3.8 billion. It is clear that compared with high school graduates, individuals without a high school diploma are more costly to the province’s public resources.
While this report does not specifically mention investing in school buildings, we know that school conditions impact student achievement, student health and student attendance. Therefore, we extrapolate that provincial spending on education to benefit Ontario’s economy would include provincial spending on actual school buildings as well.