The evolution of professionalism - Centre for Policy Studies in ...

Canada, 2003). Teachers’ salaries, which account for more than 70 percent of
school boards’ operating expenses, increased by less than 1 percent per year from
1994 to 1998 but rose by an average of 2.5 percent per year between 1999 and
2001. The smallest increases occurred in Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador,
and Nova Scotia, while the largest increases were in Saskatchewan, Québec, and
Alberta (Statistics Canada, op. cit.). During the period 1992 to 2001, the non-salary
component of EPI saw twice the growth of the salary component.
Since 2000, changes in the political climate have seen signifi cant attempts to
reverse restraint-lead fi scal policies. The Manitoba NDP government introduced a
new model for funding of schools in 2002, which provided a simplifi ed and more
transparent calculation for instructional support, and a more targeted approach
aiming at the equitable distribution of provincial funding. Rather than emphasize
that each school district receive the exact same funding per student, which has been
the guiding principle in the funding formulas of Alberta, Ontario, Nova Scotia,
and British Columbia, Manitoba’s NDP government recognized that equal funding
implies unequal support based on the local conditions and student population.
Similarly, the election of a Liberal government in Ontario has marked a shift toward
the political centre with respect to fi scal policy. Most surprisingly, following their
re-elections, the Klein Conservatives in Alberta and the Campbell Liberals in BC
have almost completely reversed the restraint funding policy that characterized
their earlier approach to education.
Accountability
In the last decade and a half, accountability has come to dominate the educational
policy discourse in Canada and pervade the majority of government documents
and policies. Subsumed under the accountability umbrella there are references
to outcomes-based education, standardized testing and community/parental
involvement in education. Closely related to notions of accountability are references
to teachers’ professionalism and the accountability/reporting process of teachers and
school administrators. Regulation is a key concept as governments attempt to make
transparent their control, direct or indirect, over education systems. In this sense,
accountability overlaps with governance and the tension between vertical logic
(centralization, top-down decision-making) and horizontal logic (decentralization,
bottom-up decision-making), as outlined in Chapter Six on Québec.
The emphasis on accountability should be seen as part of the increasing
dominance of a political-economic imperative in the formation of government
policy. The power of the market and the concomitant emphasis on competition
appears to cut across the ideological lines separating political parties. However,
while provincial governments across Canada have made accountability a priority
regardless of their political party affi liation, we note qualitative differences
depending on political ideology. So, for example, the 1990s marked two distinct
approaches to policy in Manitoba. Gary Filmon’s Progressive Conservatives
embarked on a prescriptive course of action, and while the policies of the New
Democratic Party were not all that dissimilar from those of their predecessor, their
endorsement of the accountability movement was “kinder and gentler.” A similar
Chapter 12: Conclusion 221