The Province of Manitoba should assume full responsibility for public school financing and abandon property taxes as a revenue source.

If Manitoba divisions accepted just 8,500 international students to compensate for enrolment declines, and each of these students paid tuition in the amount of $10,000, an extra $85 million in funding would be pumped into the public school system and could improve instructional programs for all students.

The world-wide trend in education is generally moving towards more choices for students and parents. Among countries embracing the trend are New Zealand, Britain, and the United States. Approximately 2700 charter schools have opened in the latter, and research demonstrates that most of them have been very successful.

The FRAME Report should be expanded beyond measuring inputs expended by the public school system to include information about student achievement.

In 2000 Manitoba abolished the Grade 3 standards tests and made the Grade 6 and 9 standards tests optional. Only Grade 12 tests have remained in place on a compulsory basis. These changes have reduced the province’s level of educational accountability.

Manitoba school divisions have perverse incentives to overstate the need for special education funding