Quebec will see a multi-billion dollar investment into the education sector over the next five years. For the Quebec English School Boards Association, Tuesday’s provincial budget is a step in the right direction.
“Many of the meetings that we had with the minister were specifically talking about early intervention and our concerns about helping the children prior to them coming in to the school system to be the best students possible,” said QESBA President, Jennifer Maccarone. “So certainly, this is a budget that addresses those concerns.”
Education spending will increase three per cent for each of the next three years, adding up to $3.4 billion dollars over five years. Much of that money is targeted specifically at better supporting children with learning disabilities.
1,500 new staff members will be hired at the elementary and high school levels by September of this year, with that number increasing to 7,200 within five years.
“What it means for the English sector is about 150 services, so jobs that will go directly to supporting our students, which is good news,” said Maccarone. “It certainly means more money that is going to be injected into the system and, for the first time in many, many years, our system costs are going to be covered.”
More than a billion dollars will also be invested into educational infrastructure, aiming to improve building viability and access to technology.
It’s all good news for education in Quebec, but Maccarone says the specifics of how these funds will be used is still somewhat uncertain.
“We’re still waiting for the budget parameters to come out to understand exactly what the implications will be,” she said.
One thing is certain though: the budget provides for important investments benefiting students with special needs.
Baie d’Urfe resident Anna Bisakowski knows all too well how badly these funds are needed.
“The schools are scrambling,” the mother of three told Global News. Bisakowski’s five-year-old son Simon was diagnosed with autism two years ago.
“It looks very nice on paper, all the money is there on paper but where is this money going to be allocated specifically?
Bisakowski has hopes of her own as to the investment.
She says the autism consultant assigned to Simon’s school also serves a number of other schools in the area, and says the intervention delays can last months.
Now, she is optimistic that more money will mean more on-staff specialists and shorter wait times.
“I’m happy that they’re recognizing that special needs kids do need a lot of support,” said Bisakowski. “I hope that’s going to be a growing trend in the future.”
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