Tag Archives: Nanos

The Time to Invest in Publicly Funded Education is Now

December 3, 2019

Last week, the Ontario Public School Board Association (OPSBA) and Nanos Research released polling data regarding many public education issues. This data confirmed that Ontarians view money spent on publicly funded education as an important investment in Ontario’s future and that the provincial government should prioritize education spending over tackling the deficit. Over 90% of Ontarians supported investing in school maintenance and repairs.

Back in August, Premier Ford declared that his government was going to invest $13-billion in building new schools over the coming 10 years; and that his government was going to continue to invest $1.4-billion each year for school repairs.

Recognizing that there are many urgent issues to be addressed in the education sector at the moment, Fix Our Schools urges the Ford government to begin investing in building new schools in Ontario. Back in July 2019, Minister Lecce announced that the provincial government would finally resume the process to approve new school buildings after a year hiatus when zero new school buildings were approved in this province.Ā  We’re still waiting to hear how this process is unfolding and we are still lamenting that this government’s actions allowed over a year to pass with zero investment in new school buildings.Ā 

As Ontarians declared in the recent OPSBA and Nanos research polls, the time to invest in publicly funded education in Ontario is now.Ā 

 

90% of Ontarians support investing in school infrastructure

November 25, 2019

On Monday, November 25, 2019, the Ontario Public School Boardsā€™ Association (OPSBA) and Nanos Research released polling data regarding several public education issues ranging from student achievement and well-being to curriculum, funding, and governance.

Fix Our Schools was thrilled to see that the majority of Ontarians agree that spending in public education is an investment in the future and that they are twice as likely to say that spending on public education is more important than eliminating the deficit. Hurrah! We wholeheartedly agree with the majority of Ontarians! In fact, back in April 2019, Fix Our Schools explored how government deficits and debt may not be as scary as many believe.Ā  And in June 2019, Fix Our Schools continued to explore this idea in the blog post entitled, “The High Cost of Low Corporate Taxes”.Ā  We were equally thrilled to see that 90% of Ontarians supported investing in school maintenance and repairs.Ā 

The research results released today also found that:

  • Nearly two-thirds of Ontarians think funding for education should be set based on number of students and inflation rather than overall provincial spending
  • Just over four in five Ontarians support or somewhat support school boards having more autonomy to ensure their budgets reflect local needs
  • Nine in ten Ontarians say it is important or somewhat important to invest in school maintenance and repairs

ā€œThese results validate the hard work and dedication of public school boards and our Association,ā€ said Cathy Abraham, President of OPSBA. ā€œEducation is the second largest funding line in the provincial budget and it is our hope that these results can help inform decisions to ensure public education is supported by stable and predictable funding. Public education is an investment for the future and we must advocate for those conditions that will help all students succeed.ā€

We’ve only highlighted the findings that directly relate to Fixing Ontario’s Schools and we encourage people to read the whole research report to confirm how much support for publicly funded education exists in Ontario.