The Manitoba School Boards Association (MSBA) is calling on the provincial government to further delay implementing its K-12 education review until the system has come through the COVID-19 pandemic.

The plea follows comments made by Premier Brian Pallister earlier this week during a year-end interview in which he said that a priority for government in 2021 will be to eliminate many of the administrative positions that exist within the education system, shift resources and instead place an emphasis onto what is happening in the classroom in order to have the system become less reliant on property taxes.

Read more: Manitoba's Education System To Be Less Reliant On Property Tax

MSBA president, Alan Campbell, says this comment and others made by Pallister regarding his plans to amend Manitoba's education system, have been without context.

MSBA president, Alan Campbell.

"When you consider that superintendents, secretary treasurers and senior administrators in school divisions and in schools have been absolutely swamped working around the clock for months on end trying to keep the system running during this pandemic, to have the Premier of Manitoba come out and make an off-the-cuff comment about how administrative positions are going to be cut - the blow to morale, which is already suffering because of the strain on the system, is so damaging to the work that we're trying to do for students and their families," said Campbell.

While the situation hasn't always been perfect, Campbell says the government representatives that school boards have been working with throughout this process have recognized the crucial role that school boards play in tailoring the over-arcing provincial pandemic guidelines to their specific local needs.

"The challenge that we have is that we could go for weeks of strong collaboration...and then every now-and-then the Premier comes out with comments about a top-heavy education system, and how they need to make changes for the good of student outcomes when in reality the education system isn't top-heavy," he added. According to Campbell, school boards account for less that half-a-cent of every dollar spent on education in Manitoba, while senior administration costs are less than four cents of every dollar.

Additionally, Campbell says the Province's introduction of Bill 64, the Education Modernization Act, last month has led to rampant speculation about what government has planned for the system, and he is calling on government to lift the shroud on the legislation that he says, contrary to normal practice, has been withheld from public scrutiny.

As a result, the MSBA is also calling on government to hold up to its promise of further consultation before implementing any changes.

"They've talked about the fact that they want to make further changes in line with the recommendations in the K-12 review which have yet to be seen, but that there will be further consultation about what those changes will mean. So speculation is rightly rampant that the Education Modernization Act is the legislative underpinnings for implementing those recommendations but we don't know what they are because the legislation is blank, it's a blank sheet of paper," said Campbell.

And while Campbell says MSBA has been working with other provincial partners in calling for education taxation reform for decades, he notes it's frustrating the Province continues its narrative of amalgamations and administrative cuts in the midst of the global pandemic, and while the results of its K-12 review are shelved.

"But if the Premier wants to understand why there's such a heavy reliance on property tax as a source of education funding, then he should get Premier Selinger, Premier Doer and Premier Fillmon together and the four of them can just look in the mirror because under their collective leadership the provincial funding of education has simply not kept pace with the need of local public schools," explained Campbell. "So school boards have been forced to assess property tax in order to make up for the provincial shortfall...it's not fair to the local property tax payer to carry the burden of the need of the system at a higher degree than ever before when the provincial funding continues to fall short."

As well, Campbell says there is no evidence to show any significant savings were incurred or redirected to classrooms during the last round of forced school division amalgamations nearly 20 years ago. In fact, he suggests the move actually cost tax payers more money in order to pay for administrative and bureaucratic costs associated with running larger divisions.