{"id":2181,"date":"2015-05-03T15:31:40","date_gmt":"2015-05-03T22:31:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/?p=2181"},"modified":"2015-06-11T15:39:59","modified_gmt":"2015-06-11T22:39:59","slug":"the-basic-bced-statistics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/archives\/2181","title":{"rendered":"The Basic #BCEd Statistics"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"wp_fb_like_button\" style=\"margin:5px 0;float:none;height:30px;\"><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/archives\/2181\" send=\"false\" layout=\"standard\" width=\"450\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\" action=\"recommend\" colorscheme=\"light\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p>The debate over public education in British Columbia is often a heated struggle of ideologies and partisan\u00a0beliefs. Thankfully, Statistics Canada has published some\u00a0helpful\u00a0data in a publication called \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.statcan.gc.ca\/pub\/81-595-m\/81-595-m2013099-eng.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Summary Elementary and Secondary School Indicators for Canada, the Provinces and Territories, 2006\/2007 to 2010\/2011<\/a>\u201d. [Unfortunately, no newer comparative evidence exists, but the publication is\u00a0due to be updated\u00a0next year.] The evidence therein provides the basis for an informed discussion about education policy and funding, and a means by which\u00a0the competing claims of the provincial government and supporters of public education may be judged. I&#8217;ve often referred to the data in piecemeal fashion, but I thought it would be helpful to compile some of the key charts in one post.<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>1. Overall <strong>operating expenditure<\/strong>\u00a0for public education as of 2011 is\u00a0$988 less in British Columbia than the Canadian average, and significantly below BC\u2019s neighbouring provinces.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/1000_less_underline.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-left: auto; display: block; padding-right: 0px; margin-right: auto; border: 0px;\" title=\"1000_less_underline\" src=\"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/1000_less_underline_thumb.jpg\" alt=\"1000_less_underline\" width=\"520\" height=\"243\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>2. After the 2006 contract, it became clear the\u00a0settlement would not be fully funded. The key evidence for this conclusion is the change in the <strong>student-educator\u00a0ratio<\/strong>. Despite other provinces facing the same demographic and economic challenges, only BC&#8217;s\u00a0SER climbed after 2006. By 2011, BC\u00a0had the worst SER in the country.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/13.2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" alignright\" style=\"background-image: none; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-left: auto; display: block; padding-right: 0px; margin-right: auto; border: 0px;\" title=\"13.2\" src=\"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/13.2_thumb.jpg\" alt=\"13.2\" width=\"512\" height=\"347\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/13.1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" alignright\" style=\"background-image: none; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-left: auto; display: block; padding-right: 0px; margin-right: auto; border: 0px;\" title=\"13.1\" src=\"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/13.1_thumb.jpg\" alt=\"13.1\" width=\"520\" height=\"339\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>(For a fairly definitive look at the effects of class size, this <a href=\"http:\/\/nepc.colorado.edu\/files\/pb_-_class_size.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">recent meta-data study<\/a> doesn\u2019t mince words:\u00a0 \u201cAll else being equal, increasing class sizes will harm student outcomes.\u201d)<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>3. Are BC public educators <strong>paid<\/strong> too much compared to other provinces? It\u2019s difficult to make this comparison, because\u00a0each\u00a0province has its own pay scale and criteria. But according to Statistics Canada,\u00a0 the\u00a0<em>average educator pay per student<\/em>\u00a0metric demonstrates that BC teachers are not overpaid. Between 2006\/2007 and 2010\/2011, per student &#8220;remuneration&#8221; increased the least in BC, and by 2011 was the lowest\u00a0in Canada.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/payperstudentchange1.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" alignnone\" style=\"background-image: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px;\" title=\"payperstudentchange1\" src=\"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/payperstudentchange1_thumb.gif\" alt=\"payperstudentchange1\" width=\"509\" height=\"307\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/ed_renumeration1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; display: inline; padding-right: 0px; border: 0px;\" title=\"ed_renumeration1\" src=\"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/ed_renumeration1_thumb.jpg\" alt=\"ed_renumeration1\" width=\"515\" height=\"345\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>(Given that BC public school teachers faced\u00a0a three year wage freeze after 2011, it&#8217;s hard to believe anything has changed with regard to pay per student.)<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>4. The BC Liberal government often proclaims that <strong>student outcomes<\/strong> are excellent. Aside from dubious improvements to the graduation rate\u00a0(which is\u00a0fairly easy to manipulate)\u00a0the BC government often points to the high PISA scores achieved by BC students. While technically true compared to other jurisdictions, these scores have rested on the laurels of previous governments and actually declined during the BC Liberal era. Moreover, PISA scores are the result of many factors, and may not be particularly representative of educational effectiveness, but even if we take them at face value it&#8217;s hard to see why they allow the BC Liberals to justify under-funding.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/mathreadingpisaBC1.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"background-image: none; float: none; padding-top: 0px; padding-left: 0px; margin-left: auto; display: block; padding-right: 0px; margin-right: auto; border: 0px;\" title=\"mathreadingpisaBC1\" src=\"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/mathreadingpisaBC1_thumb.gif\" alt=\"mathreadingpisaBC1\" width=\"441\" height=\"711\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>Have I\u00a0cherry-picked the data? Well,\u00a0it&#8217;s difficult to be neutral about such an important topic, but\u00a0please let me know if there is any other data\u00a0you think is\u00a0crucial\u00a0for the debate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The debate over public education in British Columbia is often a heated struggle of ideologies and partisan\u00a0beliefs. Thankfully, Statistics Canada has published some\u00a0helpful\u00a0data in a publication called \u201cSummary Elementary and Secondary School Indicators for Canada, the Provinces and Territories, 2006\/2007 to 2010\/2011\u201d. [Unfortunately, no newer comparative evidence exists, but the publication is\u00a0due to be updated\u00a0next [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7,8,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bc-politics","category-canadian-politics","category-economic-issues","category-education"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2181"}],"version-history":[{"count":35,"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2223,"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2181\/revisions\/2223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lexiconic.net\/wheatfromthechaff\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}