Total public and private expenditures for elementary and secondary education rose 2.3% from a year earlier to $58.0 billion in 2017/2018, double the increase of the previous school year.
The rise in total expenditures coincided with the growing student population in Canada, which rose 1.0% from a year earlier to 5.6 million public and private elementary and secondary school students.
The financial pressures on the Canadian elementary and secondary school system resulting from the annual spending increase in 2017/2018 may be compounded by the impending constraints of COVID-19 in the 2020/2021 school year. As local governments ease rules for property tax payments used to support educational institutions, and priorities for funding from provincial/territorial governments potentially shift, public school boards may lose access to a portion of their public funding. Also, with the development of online learning platforms and classrooms fit for safe learning, schools will likely be forced to increase both capital and operating expenditures.
