The Education Money Machine

If you ever doubted that public education involves big bucks, take a look at Ontario's public accounts, this one for 2015. The Ministry of Education begins at page 127. This is where you can find out how much the school boards get, plus there are hundreds of hangers-on. First Robotics Canada ($599,564)?  Free the Children ($650,000)?  Harmony Movement ($341,200)?  Massey Centre for Women ($485,483)?  People for Education ($181,221)?  Roots of Empathy ($2,030,000)?

And then there is the money going to the teachers' unions. Association des Enseignenantes et Enseignenants Franco-Ontariens ($424,359)?  Elementary Teachers' Federation of Ontario ($450,000)?  Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association ($770,100)?  Ontario Secondary Teachers' Association ($960,327)?  Ontario Teachers' Federation ($5,768,130)?  Ontario Teachers' Plan Pension Board ($1,525,800,671)?  Ontario Teachers' Retirement Compensation Arrangement ($5,129,811)? The latter two are itemized on page 139.

I'm sure there are many other examples of egregious over-spending, but this is what I found with a cursory look. Happy hunting!

The amount of money sloshing around ensures that those at the trough will fight very hard to preserve the status quo. This of course makes it very difficult to bring in real change.  H/T DW

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