Manitoba government announces increased funding for school divisions

Funding for Manitoba's school divisions is increasing by $67 million for the next academic year.

Monday morning, Tracy Schmidt, the newly minted education minister for the province, said the boost is consistent with last year's increase at 3.4 per cent.

Background information from the province shows the bump will vary between one per cent and almost 10 per cent for individual divisions, with the inclusion of federal nutrition funding.

The province says "incremental" changes to the funding formula for school divisions are also being made.

"This includes calculating funding based on the best of the last three years of enrollment," Schmidt says. "In addition, we will be reconstituting the stakeholder advisory committee on school funding to identify further opportunities to improve the way education is funded in our province going forward."

A revamp of the funding model was promised by the former Progressive Conservative government but did not come to fruition.

Schmidt vows continued dialogue with school divisions, staff, and Manitoba families to "provide stable and predictable funding" for schools.