Quebec intends to ease the supervision of certain budgetary measures put in place to ensure student success, it has been learned The DutyA prospect that worries parents’ committees, who fear in particular that the acquisition of books and food aid will suffer compared to the other needs of the schools.
Every year, schools in the province fail to spend tens of millions of dollars allocated to them by the state to fund “protected” measures, a survey by the Duty. In order to help school organizations spend all of these funds, Quebec has begun in recent years “a process of optimizing and simplifying budgetary rules,” which will continue in anticipation of those expected for the year 2025-2026, the Ministry of Education confirmed by email.
The ministry is thus proceeding with the “merger of protected measures” with “similar aims” so that the school network has sufficient “room for maneuver” to spend these sums. The number of protected measures is therefore decreasing, as has been the case in recent years. A perspective that many school managers view favorably.
“We are positively involved in this approach, since this relaxation should give more flexibility to establishments to invest in the success of our students while optimizing available resources,” writes in particular to Duty the La Jonquière School Service Center (CSS).
CSS Marie-Victorin emphasizes that the “constraints” surrounding protected measures, which include food aid, tutoring and cultural outings, “can increase the administrative burden” of organizations like its own. “During the annual consultation on budgetary rules, we emphasize the importance of grouping measures together with a view to agility and predictability for institutions.”
Worried parents
The reduction in the number of protected measures nevertheless worries associations of parents’ committees in the province, who fear that direct services to students will suffer, at a time when schools are facing numerous challenges.
“We don’t want the purchase of books to be an option,” says Sylvain Martel, spokesperson for the Regroupement des comités de parents autonomes du Québec, who points out that if a measure is no longer protected, “we no longer determine where we want to put the money.” The envelope intended for cultural outings or food aid could then be allocated, for example, to the purchase of desks or the maintenance of classrooms, he illustrates.
“There are schools that will manage their things very well [si les mesures protégées sont abolies]but humans being what they are, we have to be careful. Protected measures exist to prevent abuse and to prevent vulnerable people, to whom these budgets are intended, from being harmed,” says the president of the Fédération des comités de parents du Québec, Mélanie Laviolette.
The latter also describes as “nonsense” that the positive balances accumulated by the CSS in recent years are returned to the state coffers without any guarantee of reinvestment in education.
“The solution comes more from making efforts to spend on these protected measures, and not from easing their supervision,” adds Sylvain Martel.
It is also “important” to ensure that the positive balances accumulated by CSS due to the cumbersome nature of the current system, in the amounts reserved for protected measures, “are not an excuse to cut the budget”, continues Mr.me Laviolette.
Decrease in funds
However, since the 2023-2024 school year, it is provided in the State budget documents that if “a surplus” is noted in the income of a CSS compared to its expenses, the subsidy from the ministry from which it benefits “will be reduced” accordingly.
However, CSSs are sometimes unable to spend all the funds allocated to them for protected measures not because there is no need, but because the budgets are communicated to them too late in the year, according to various testimonies collected. “For tutoring, the amounts often come in after the start of the school year. So, we have these amounts, for example, in December or January, but the staff is already hired, we have already filled the tasks of our staff,” explains the president of the Association québécoise du personnel de direction d’école, Carl Ouellet.
Schools are then unable to spend all the money at their disposal on tutoring even though the need exists. They then find themselves exposed to the risk that their budget will be reduced due to the administrative burden of Quebec, continues Mr. Ouellet. “It creates a vicious circle.”