Equity and adequacy in the financing of public school education in Canada: issues and concerns

Abstract

Most research addressing unequal educational opportunity as regards to fiscal equity and adequacy has largely focused on disparities between school boards and to some extent individual schools in the same province. Disparities among provinces, a problem less emphasized by the research in Canada, offer a significant lens through which public education funding can be examined. A comparative rather than individual province analysis provides policy makers with rich information that can assist funding policy comparisons and decisions. -- This study analyzes fiscal equity and perceptions of adequacy across ten provinces for the years 1996-2006. The results of the study reveal that the disparities have disproportionately affected the Atlantic provinces. Furthermore, the study shows that inter-provincial disparities in spending are linked to provincial resource endowment, thus highlighting the need for a federal role in ameliorating inter-provincial disparities in educational standards. Further analysis of the research revealed that there has been an increased emphasis on the perceptions of adequacy and that across most provincial jurisdictions; policies are geared towards student attainment of performance standards.