School daze.

This article discusses how the provinces in Canada will probably spend more money on education when they should be spending less. As the provinces gear up to introduce their budgets, you can bet your last tax dollar that many finance ministers will justify ramped-up spending in education as an investment in the future. A good education system is vital, of course, but in fact provincial governments now have an opportunity to slow down growth in education spending without compromising quality. The reason: Canada's low fertility rate. Canada's elementary and secondary student population fell by 1.6% from 1996-97 to 2004-05, but the decline has been quite sharp in some provinces: 25.7% in Newfoundland, 11.4% in Nova Scotia and 3.8% in Quebec. Those declining enrolments mean that provinces could maintain inflation-adjusted per-student spending while allowing total spending to grow at about half the rate of growth in the economy. If student enrolments are declining, why do governments feel they must ramp up total spending on education? The most obvious reason for rapid per-student spending growth is that governments mistakenly believe that more per-student spending on education will improve results. The success of such reforms does not imply that more money needs to be thrown at education, as opposed to a better allocation of resources to encourage stronger school performance.