To pay for salary settlements, cash-strapped school districts require around $120 million.
Manitoba is donating an additional $120 million to its school system while freezing education property taxes for the second year in a row.
However, it is uncertain if the inflow of provincial funds would be sufficient to alleviate the country’s increasing inflation rate.
At a virtual press conference on Friday, the government revealed its budget pledges for the kindergarten to Grade 12 education system in 2022-23.
The majority of the funds — $77 million — is a one-time allocation to help public schools with their budgetary restrictions, notably the recent salary agreements with teachers and other personnel.
This is in addition to the $80 million pledged to address these financial challenges for the current 2021-22 academic year, according to Education Minister Wayne Ewasko during a virtual news conference on Friday.
“COVID-19, inflation, and other expenditures, according to school divisions, have exacerbated their budgetary strains and difficulties. This has been taken into account for this year’s release of public school financing “He stated.
In addition, Manitoba is contributing an extra $18 million, or 1.34 percent, to fund operational and capital expenditures at public schools, as well as $2.2 million to help independent schools.