This section wraps with a review of two documents produced in 1954 Nova Scotia and 1955 New Brunswick, two documents I have included with the first half-20th-century Canadian public education documents.
The 1954 Nova Scotia Pottier document is a foundational document in Nova Scotia policy history. Beautifully written, this document synthesizes the fundamental problem of delivering education to rural and urban areas equitably. The document is valuable in supplying an overview of Nova Scotia education policy history and development. The document reviews Nova Scotia education policy history from 1604 in three sections: 1604 to 1864; 1864 to 1942; and 1942 to 1954.
The problem of assessment at the municipal unit level is the challenge of the 1950s:
The difficulties of equalization of assessments on both real and personal properties at the Municipal level are great or small depending upon how good or how bad the internal assessment of each Municipal unit happens to be….The Commission recommends that a permanent Equalization Assessment Commission be appointed which would make a report dealing with a Province-wide equalization of assessment on the Municipal level every two years.
There is a reference in this document to comparison with the United States and Manitoba on assessment methods. Here is another example of public education policy considered against other Canadian systems and international models.
The Commission had no alternative but to undertake this method of equalizing assessment. It was forced to investigate all phase and to look into every experience available where this had been done. There is very little Canadian experience to go by for equalization of assessment at the Municipal level. The Province of Manitoba has to some extent attempted to do this. It is quite a common practice however, in the United States, and has been done in whole or in part in a number of States. The Commission visited some of these States and studied as well as observed and looked into the procedures and practices that were followed.
The document cites an urgent need for new buildings and classrooms. The conclusion is primarily that,
Every Municipal unit shall pay according to its ability towards education by equalized assessment.” The public mandate is confirmed, “The Commission has tried to determine what the public would want to do for education and has proposed a way to do it. The entire available resources of the Province have been harnessed to provide every child with an equal opportunity to obtain an education, spreading the cost on all according to ability.
Following the earlier mentioned Pottier Report of Nova Scotia in 1954, a 1955 New Brunswick royal commission on financing public schools was completed. This document is also a bridging document of sorts, tapping into a second issue, one that is also very Canadian, that of equity, equity not only between students of differing social economic status, but also equity between rural and urban schools of the province. In British Columbia’s 1945 commission report the urban/rural equity theme is echoed as it is in other Canadian public education commission reports. The summary of the history from 1871 where the matter of public schools was established – the document states – “As is known, or should be known, to every school boy, free public education in New Brunswick began in 1871 with the passage of the Free Schools Act,” is noteworthy, providing an overview on another linking Canadian theme, vocational education. At the time, vocational education was treated separately with bureaucratic arrangements set specifically to accommodate it:
After the financial structure was set in the decade 1871-1881 no change of major importance took place until the passage of the Vocational Education Act in 1918. The provisions of this Act were not applied in any great degree until 1921 when approximately $28,729.00 was granted by the province. In 1926 the Saint John Vocational School was opened to give great impetus to the course of Vocational Education. In 1929, according to the Eleventh Annual Report of the New Brunswick Vocational Board, grants totalling $109,163.64 were paid from the province: of this amount federal grants constituted $49,778.82. The provision of the Vocational Act are significant in several respects; they are the first grants of any great importance to be set up for a special purpose, or earmarked for the development of one particular part of education, and they are the first ones calling for a semi-separate system of administration under a Provincial Vocational Board and under local committees. This method was undoubtedly followed as the most practicable means of encouraging vocational education. The vocational grants are also the first ones to include federal moneys in support of public school education…No further change of importance took place in the grant structure until 1943 when the County Schools Finance Act was passed. This Act was most momentous in the grant structure until 1943 when the County Schools Finance Act was passed. This Act was most momentous in its consequences and was to usher in the tremendous programme of education in which we find ourselves now engaged…
This 1955 document provides information on how vocational education was linked into the public schools, and this possibly is a matter for further consideration in terms of the way education is nationally supported – since historically, vocational education was considered separate from public schooling and this seems to me to be obscured historical information. The document recommends a course of action in terms of vocational education for the second half of the 20th century.
When vocational education was first undertaken in New Brunswick it was considered essential, in order for it to have a fair chance to become established, that it be set up under a partially separate system of education; accordingly, in the towns and cities, vocational departments operate under a local vocational committee composed in part of some members of the regular school board and in part of non-school board members. Now that vocational education has become a part of our system, and now that the need for technical education is recognized, this system of dual control of high schools seems both cumbersome and unnecessary. It is significant that no such vocational committees have been set up in large regional high schools established in the last decade. If the recommendations of the Commission are followed all special grants will be discontinued and provincial funds paid on an over-all basis to the boards of school trustees, who will disburse them on the same basis. For these reasons it is recommend: That all local vocational committees be abolished and that the regular boards of school trustees be held responsible for the administration of all education within their respective areas.
A concern with rising taxation has also prompted the report but the commission finds that the concern in rising taxes is not justified when considered against certain factors:
The Commission considers that taxation, in general terms, over the province as a whole, after rising to a high during the war years and then declining somewhat, is now at or somewhat beyond the level of 1936, and is beginning to bear more heavily the last year or two. There is no evidence, however, that it is as ruinous as many have claimed. Ordinary observation of the number of automobiles on the roads, or of the general consumption of consumer goods rather suggests also that taxation is not wholly exorbitant. The figures for the sale of alcoholic beverages do not appear to have declined any but on the contrary rose steadily to over $17,000,000.00 as chart 1 [p. 21 original] below shows. Add to this an estimated sale of $5,000,000.00 of tobacco in the province and the expenditure for these purposes exceeds the amount spend for education by a comfortable margin. The Commission is making no comment on this practice; it is merely observing that while taxation is high and may be reaching a point of declining returns, there is little evidence that it is, with some exceptions by region or group, unbearably heavy.
The Commission notes the rise in personal income from 94 million dollars in 1936 to over four hundred million dollars in 1953. School costs have risen dramatically. The grant system is also discussed –
…there are tremendous discrepancies, on the basis of cost used, in the proportion and amounts of provincial aid going to the different municipalities…. The areas now getting the greatest grants are those that have the resources, and have used them generously, to provide splendid facilities, perhaps too splendid at times. In doing this they have taken advantage of grants, especially for vocational departments, and their own expenses have gone up.
Assessment for taxation purposes is lagging: “Our assessing practices in respect of uniformity, not to put too fine a point on it, are deplorable, with several notable exceptions.” A standardized system of accounting is recommended. The equity issue cannot be tackled without bureaucratic upgrades. The 1955 report compares New Brunswick against the other provinces to assess the “burden” of financing schools in comparison. The analysis is found in chapter eight entitled, “The Comparative Tax-Paying Ability of New Brunswick.” One paragraph submits the following opinion which is representative:
To bring the matter to the ultimate point of comparison, Table 20 [p. 86, original document] sets forth the percentage of personal income required in each province to support (a) the education now being offered by that province (b) the present total expenditures for all purposes by that province. The results are about what one would have expected. New Brunswick has to expend and is expending $15.432% of its personal income for its present services, as against 11.711% for Canada as a whole, and as against the low of 9.437% for Manitoba. It will be remembered that these calculations are based on present expenditures which vary a great deal from province to province. A case in point is British Columbia, whose percentage of personal income, 14.258 – almost as high as that in New Brunswick – is brought about by a high level of expenditure over a large and difficult terrain. New Brunswick at the present time spends the highest proportion of its personal income both for education and for all services of all provinces in Canada; that is to say, New Brunswick is making the greatest effort, in proportion to her income, of all the Canadian provinces.
This type of finance-taxing type of royal commission report is in the tradition of mid-20th century education policy with open discussion of the property-based taxation issue. This document compares with British Columbia’s 1945 document and it is rather an important foundational issues document keeping good historical company with Manitoba 1945 and Ontario 1950. It is significant in terms of providing some idea as to the post-war advances in terms of vocational education policy set in place with the foundational document to the 20th century, the 1913 “Royal Commission on Industrial Training and Technical Education.” Policy that integrates vocational education with public education is established in post-war public education policy.
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