While considerable attention has been paid to the supposed qualitative outcomes of changes in level of financial support for public school education, comparatively little is known about the effects of funding changes on the provision of educational services. An examination of the levels of government expenditure on education in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba from 1976 to 1987 reveals a strong relationship between the state of the provincial economy and levels of financial support. During this period funding levels increased and decreased in all the provinces, with British Columbia experiencing the largest and most frequent fluctuations. Indices were developed for this study to measure the changes in levels of educational services provided. These changes were found to be closely associated with funding levels.
Analysis of data obtained from a sample of 20 British Columbia school districts revealed a similar pattern at the district level. In addition, the mix of services was studied, and significant changes were evident in the percentage of teachers employed in instructional as opposed to administrative and support positions. These changes were associated with changes in levels of financial support.
Certain characteristics of school districts were identified as having the potential to explain different responses to funding changes. Regression analysis was used to test the resulting hypotheses, and produced largely inconclusive results.
This study concludes that although the level and mix of educational services provided in western Canada varied as funding levels increased and decreased over the period studied, in the main school systems proved sufficiently resilient to maintain or even to increase the levels of service they ordinarily provided without dramatically altering the mix of instructional and support staff. / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uvic.ca/oai:dspace.library.uvic.ca:1828/9456 |
| Date | 15 June 2018 |
| Creators | Glegg, Alastair Robertson Lindsay |
| Contributors | Hodgkinson, C. E. |
| Source Sets | University of Victoria |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | Available to the World Wide Web |
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