An Educational Financial Crises
Should students be without access to important tools that could prove valuable to their future, should teachers have to forgo classroom activities due to large resource waiting lists and should administrators have to pick and choose between departments for projects to implement because there is not enough to go around if projects go beyond the basic needs and maintenance requirements for a school to be operational.
Education should be visionary and so there should be more to a school’s budget than simple short term expensing for maintenance purposes, rather there should systems in place that promote long term investments for a school’s development. The reality is that we find barriers to sound decision making that restrict a school’s options; to invest in needed resources only after being without for a considerable amount of time or to punish schools for not expending its yearly allowance.
Financially speaking our education system is in ruin because the current paradigm is neither sustainable nor capable of managing our schools effectively in relation to our parents, students, teachers, administrators, unions, and the ministry of education’s needs. All parties are all at odds with one another. All parties are trying to run the system with what little finances currently exist.
Education in Canada has been traditionally publicly funded. Private schools have historically been less common in Canada with only about 5.6 percent (Wikipedia, 25) due to many Canadians being polarized on the issues of access and the obligation of government to provide equality of education to students regardless of family income.
If a paradigm shifts occur in times of crises, then a shift is upon us. Especially when considering the costs of education that are soaring and the government’s relentless efforts focused on the streamlining of education in order to keep those costs down. It is in my belief that education is being run more like a business every day and for this talk of dollars to make cents it is expected that a paradigm shift regarding how Canadian education will be financed and funded will follow. Case in point is the ministry’s recent announcement of increasing spending on private schools, which backs other trends that private sector schools have been seeing larger increases over their public school counterpart (BCTF 2012, 30).
Be it the residual effects form the current credit crunch or a shift in educational mentality, there are many unfortunate and unnecessary realities that exist within our education system, which may never be fully solved, but adequately alleviated through the application of business models—private fundraising; with the meaning of private fundraising referring to all contributions, monetary or not, given to a school not from a government agency. Schools should be allowed to supplement their provincial funding, find ways to augment finances, have the freedom to secure their own resources, establish links with the community and partnerships with businesses and be able to manage their own costs and utilize their own resources better. If there are many ways to run a school as there are ways to run a business then how have these worlds intersected? Is there potentially more room for overlap between these traditionally different views for education—public vs. private? In short, what are the economic liberties granted to a public school for managing their finances that reside outside of governmental support and the limits put on those freedoms?
My philosophy of education begins with my belief in the school system. I believe in the current system’s values of meritocracy, equality, equity, multiculturalism and the liberal humanist notions of the individual. Schools provide a large set of new situations in a safe and supervised environment that are conducive to diverse methods of learning, interacting, and thinking. I contend that these situations add to those not commonly found at home while providing opportunities to learn unfamiliar academic and professional skills that are important for an individual to be successful in society. Schools do provide an earnest and sober step taken on the way to adulthood for the purposes of preparing students for membership in society and the world of work. However, these beliefs as stated are not in question within the current education paradigm
Essential to these fundamental beliefs is an educational philosophy that calls for the removal of barriers to teaching and underlying all my beliefs is the notion that schools are here to serve society and therefore must primarily receive its funding from the public it serves. I am not opposed to the popular Canadian view that education should be accessed by all—affordable education—but as it stands, limited in nature, is where the problem lies. First, it is the complex and diverse needs of society that has put a strain on the education system. An unnecessarily large part of this strain can be attributed to a heavy reliance on government funding for support. Second, whereas public funding should primarily constitute government support it does not mean that the government should run it. There is no business more poorly run than a business with a government agency at the head of it. Third, schools should have more autonomy over their economic affairs.
On a professional level, this research will aid in my awareness of some of the finer intricacies, policies and opinions, of the British Columbian K-12 education system, which will no doubt help in shaping my dreams of one day becoming an administrator. As a teacher, I know that the knowledge accrued through my inquiry will aid in the betterment of my students through their access gained to resources and tools that are key to their development. The significance of my inquiry to the theory and practice of education would be through the allocation of findings made by a variety of resources on the topic of funding. An importance stemming from the utilization of knowledge—international in scope—that exists on issues of financial education difficulties, their resolutions and the application of them within a Canadian context. The idea is to develop research based on my question in order to forecast the future—possible alternatives—for Canadian education. In adopting this approach I choose to parallel an interpretivism research paradigm. The foundation of my research is based on the reality that both private and public models of education work and that a variety models exist in between these paradigms. For concrete adaptations of these working models can be found through investigation of other nations’ educational models. The route I choose to follow in my research is to not look for knowledge gaps, but to investigate and understand the existent knowledge available to me and apply it to the financial problems I see in our k-12 education system. It is my intention to work towards viable solutions to our problems through inductive research by using an interpretive epistemological approach with a constructivist ontological view. My aim is to better understand why problems are unfolding and investigate what others are doing to avoid them.
Based on my experiences as an educator I have not encountered too many public schools in Vancouver, British Columbia that were without need. I was surprised at the number of schools that were without class sets of textbook for their students. I was surprised at how few lab activities were being performed in the classroom due to the lack of resources and when labs were being conducted that the equipment used was old and out of date. I was surprised regarding the work load that our school counsellor’s bear. I was surprised about the inadequate support our student career services centers receives. In general, I was surprised with the number of conversations I had with teachers that involved money or a shrinking department’s budget.
Having just returned from a ten year tour of Asia in which I have been teaching in classrooms that are as good as if not better than many over here was shocking. The reason for this shock is because of the general regard held by many foreign nationalist for our education system—in high esteem. I felt disillusioned upon arrival and touring our classrooms and saddened by our privileged and luxurious western school system’s state, because during my time abroad I had developed a sense of pride toward my nation and its education system. A sense of pride that was bestowed upon me though my conversations had with the local inhabitants of these foreign countries that I visited.
These experiences have prompted me to think about these second and third world countries rate of development, their learning (catch-up) curve and the time it will take for these countries to surpass our systems entirely and for our students to begin traveling overseas for a better education than can be provided here. Such thoughts are what stirred this inquiry.
What I bring to the table is a decade of working experience as a teacher who has worked overseas in the private sector in a dozen of jobs. My understanding of business principals come not only from my duties at and exposure to these educational institutions, but through a lifetime of involvement with my family’s businesses and an MBA. My parents are entrepreneurs and I was born,raised and surrounded by business minded people my whole life.
On the other side of the fence, many of my overseas experiences reinforce the benefits of maintaining an education system that is pure. I have seen the good, the bad and the ugly regarding how free-market reign and an entrepreneurial mindset can erode purist educational ideals and how cost and profit can affect the daily operations of a school. Witnessing such atrocities has reinforced my love for education and an understanding for the need to keep education pure without the disdain of business. However, I am pragmatic in nature and believe in the merits of business, especially in terms of management, employee motivation, pay-for-performance and salary considerations, fund raising, tuition schemas, tax incentives, human resources, youth employment plans and many other strategies that chiefly reside outside of the realm of education. My experience has showed me that good business practices are crucial for the development and sustainability of a school and that every school could greatly benefit from the utilization of free market know-how.
In conducting this inquiry it is my intention to review a wide variety of literature from multiple data sources. The majority of the literature will be in the form of readings from journal articles, dissertations, books, newspapers and magazines as well as from a plethora of online resources from the general (Wikipedia) to the specific (education websites, BCTF). The last portion of my literature review will include curricula and policy documents. A list of literature is attached in the appendix for viewing.
It is anticipated that this inquiry will provide a forum for dialogue with colleagues.Through a better understanding our current funding model I hope that we can more readily identify possible avenues to pursue for the problems that exist. It is hoped that administrators and teachers will be able to build on any ideas presented for the betterment of their schools and classrooms. It is my hope that my inquiry will bring about a significant change for our students, the next generation of leaders, through the provision of resources they need to be successful in the future. I truly believe that the financial welfare of a school is pertinent to its existence and that this inquiry will yield a potentially valuable opportunity for professional development.
Appendix Literature Research:
1. British Columbia Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) (Canada). (2012). 2012 BC education facts British Columbia Teachers’ Federation. Link
2. Potter, M. (2012). Examining the role of corporate sponsorship in the public school system: Appropriate pathways. (). Link
http://ubc.summon.serialssolutions.com/2.0.0/link/0/eLvHCXMwY2BQAN1dZWScapiWZGEOWkWYBExTaUkG5olmiWkWZilGKOtykEpzNyEGptQ8UQYZN9cQZw9d0IRFfAHkzIV4VxdTYzNgW8VQjIEF2C9OFWdgTQPGD5AGlpniQP3iDBwRll5uBs4WhhCuEIyrVwzev6RXWCIOLKLB0atrqmcAAGBpJp4
3. Petrilli, M. J., & Policy Innovators in Education Network. (2012). Doing more with less: Advice for state policymakers. ().Policy Innovators in Education Network. Link
http://ubc.summon.serialssolutions.com/2.0.0/link/0/eLvHCXMwY2BQAN1dZWScapiWZGEOWkWYBExTaUkG5olmiWkWZilGKOtykEpzNyEGptQ8UQYZN9cQZw9d0IRFfAHkzIV4Vxdg08LYzNxQjIEF2C9OFWdgTQPGD5AGlpniQP3iDBwRll5uBs4WhhCuEIyrVwzev6RXWCIOLKLB0atrqmcAAFzKJpI
4. Ladner, M., & Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice. (2012). The way of the future: Education savings accounts for every american family. ().Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice. Link
http://ubc.summon.serialssolutions.com/2.0.0/link/0/eLvHCXMwY2BQAN1dZWScapiWZGEOWkWYBExTaUkG5olmiWkWZilGKOtykEpzNyEGptQ8UQYZN9cQZw9d0IRFfAHkzIV4VxdTYzNgX8dQjIEF2C9OFWdgTQPGD5AGlpniQP3iDBwRll5uBs4WhhCuEIyrVwzev6RXWCIOLKLB0atrqmcAAFtdJo0
5. Johnson, C. C. (2013). Educational turbulence: The influence of macro and micro-policy on science education reform. Journal of Science Teacher Education, 24(4), 693-715. doi:10.1007/s10972-012-9333-9 Link
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7. National Endowment for the Arts. (2012). How the united states funds the arts. third edition. ().National Endowment for the Arts. Link
http://ubc.summon.serialssolutions.com/2.0.0/link/0/eLvHCXMwY2BQAN1dZWScapiWZGEOWkWYBExTaUkG5olmiWkWZilGKOtykEpzNyEGptQ8UQYZN9cQZw9d0IRFfAHkzIV4VxdTYzNQbSXGwALsF6eKM7CmAeMHSAPLTHGgfnEGjghLLzcDZwtDCFcIxtUrBu9f0issEQcW0eDo1TXVMwAAXJMmkQ
8. Paul Stacey. (2013). Government support for open educational resources: Policy, funding, and strategies. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 14(2), 67-80. Link
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10. McKeown-Moak, M. P. (2013). The “new” performance funding in higher education. Educational Considerations, 40(2), 3-12. Link
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