Ontario grants announcement March 27

Education Reporter has learned the Ontario Ministry of Education has scheduled a webcast for Friday morning (unknown if this is for boards only or for media as well) to release and discuss the Grants for Student Needs for 2009-10. This release comes the day after the Ontario budget-- a record for the Liberal government in Ontario that has never had the grants announcement ready so soon after a provincial budget.
With provincial discussion table framework agreements now complete for all employee groups and only local agreements with public elementary school teachers remaining, a majority of school funding for the coming four school years is already a matter of public record. However, given deficit budgeting, it will be interesting to see if any board's funding happens to decrease for 2009-10 based on projected changes in enrolment. There has been some speculation for the past few years that Ontario cannot keep increasing funding to public schools in an era when enrolment continues to drop by one to two per cent annually.
Check back Friday for more.