Commission on the Reform of Ontario's Public Services

Chapter 6: Elementary and Secondary Education
Terms of work for classroom teachers in labour framework agreements include increased
teacher preparation time and class-size reductions. These provisions have resulted in
increases in the number of teaching staff. The amount of preparation time allotted to
elementary teachers has increased steadily through the agreements; actual preparation time
for elementary teachers has increased from 152 minutes per week in 2002–03 to 240 minutes
per week in 2011–12. Current school board funding projections include funds for additional
teachers to support specific class sizes; there are hard caps on class sizes of 20 students per
class from junior kindergarten to Grade 3 (excluding FDK), with the option of going up to 23
students in 10 per cent of classes. Certain collective agreement provisions play a central role
in determining the staffing levels at schools and the allocation of time by school staff.
The Current Challenge
These recent trends have led to a status quo in elementary and secondary education
expenditures that is not sustainable given the government’s fiscal constraints. In terms of
immediate costs, the ministry must manage 2011–12 school-year funding commitments that
have not yet been fully absorbed on a fiscal-year basis, and there are provisions of the current
labour framework agreement that kick in on Aug. 31, 2012. Amortization costs incurred
because of approved or existing school renewal projects cannot be avoided. The ministry is
expecting increased costs associated with the qualifications and experience of teachers in the
range of $900 million by 2017–18, before factoring in the impact of retirements. School boards
will face other cost pressures associated with benefits, utilities and fuel. Against this backdrop,
the next collective agreements must be negotiated in a climate of overall fiscal restraint.
The government’s newly introduced FDK program will further increase costs in the education
sector over the next several years and beyond. The program represents a substantial
investment in education with long-term fiscal implications. The program has now been rolled
out in almost 800 schools, with enrolment of about 50,000. That is about one-fifth of the
intended 247,000 students to receive a full day of kindergarten learning when the program is
available across the province in the 2014–15 school year. The program has been implemented
with a staffing model of one teacher and one early childhood educator (ECE) per classroom
during the school day, with an average class size of 26. As a result, 3,000 new teachers and
20,000 ECEs will be added in schools by September 2014. Further implementation will cost an
additional $1.2 billion, resulting in an annual commitment of over $1.5 billion when the program
reaches full maturity.
Because it represents a large and growing share of government expenditures, education
sector spending growth poses a substantial challenge to the government’s plan to return to
balance. Maintaining the existing policy framework and program delivery model for elementary
and secondary education may result in average funding increases of about four per cent per
year until 2017–18.
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