Ontario should run First Nation schools: Drummond

The federal government should be providing Ontario with money to run First Nation schools in the province, say the authors of Ontario’s Drummond report.
Citing the high cost of poor education outcomes in First Nations communities in terms of social services and health care, the report calls for sweeping changes to on-reserve education in the province.
Paramount in the recommendations is a call to increase federal funding of First Nations education to the level of provincially-funded schools.
“It is commonly noted that federal funding falls well short of parity with provincial education spending on a per-student basis,” the report states. “The intolerable delays from the federal government to increase per-student funding for on-reserve education to close the gap with provincial funding levels must end.”
The call for increased funding echoes a federal First Nations education report released in February.
But the Drummond report is calling for bigger changes to First Nations education. Its authors also want Ontario to administer education on reserves, using federal money.
“The federal government (should) consider transferring this funding to the province, which is better equipped to provide expertise for K–12 capital renewal and construction,” the report states.
The call for provincial administration of First Nation schools in Ontario conflicts with the recommendation of the Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN), found in a recent report commissioned by the First Nation.
NAN wants to see the federal government provide funding directly to First Nation organizations to administer schools in its territory.
When asked what he thought of Ontario administering First Nation schools in the province, NAN deputy grand chief Terry Waboose said he doubted if the results would be any better.
“We’re willing to work with the province on ways of recognizing our control over our own students, but (if Ontario was in charge) it would be just another government,” Waboose said.
The Drummond report also calls for organization of First Nations schools into boards similar to district education councils in the provincial system, in order to increase efficiencies in First Nation schools.
It states that the current funding model, what it calls the “one-school, stand-alone model,” does not allow for economies of scale in providing education services. As an example, the report states that individual schools may not be able to provide services such as speech therapy and counselling that would normally be shared among a number of schools.
As motivation for making changes to First Nations education, the report cites a study by the Centre for the Study of Living Standards (CSLS) that found the benefit for Canada’s real economic output of increased Aboriginal education success is up to $180 billion by 2026.
The CSLS study also found that governments would spend $77 billion less on health care, social services and the justice system if the success rates of Aboriginal students can be raised to meet those of non-Aboriginal students.
The Drummond report was commissioned by the provincial government to find savings and inefficiencies, as Ontario tries to deal with a projected $30 billion deficit by 2017-2018.