By Alana Range
The Ottawa-Carleton District School Board announced earlier this month that it will invest $150,000 over two years to increase enrolment and counter falling funding.
Ottawa’s largest school board, with a handful of schools in Centretown, expects to lose between two and four per cent of its population over the next five years due to slowing birth rates. This equals a loss of around $24 million in government funding , says Sharlene Hunter, its communications co-ordinator.
“We need this money to maintain our excellent programming,” says Hunter.
Ontario schools are funded on a per-student basis. This means every new student equals hundreds of additional dollars for their chosen school.
While encouraging local students to choose the Ottawa-Carleton Board is a priority of the campaign, Geoff Best, managing director for the board’s international student program, says attracting foreign students can be financially, and culturally beneficial.
In the past six years, the board has received over $5 million in international tuition fees, according to Best.
An international student pays around $10,000 per year to attend a public high school in the Ottawa region, most of which ends up going directly to the student’s school, after administration costs.
The international program also estimates that on top of tuition, foreign students contribute about $20,000 per year to the local economy. Best says efforts are made to distribute the 237 current international students evenly across the board, spreading both the funding, and the cultural advantages.
“There are a lot of benefits from (international) students who come and go. They bring enriching experiences, not just their money,” says Best.
But some critics argue schools are turning into businesses, losing their focus on education.
“The ideas of schools competing for students is entirely inappropriate,” says Rob Campbell, father of two children in the public board. Campbell has worked with the school board, and says while he sympathizes with the their financial troubles, he’s skeptical of the campaign.
Campbell argues that because there’s no way to calculate the effectiveness of the investment in the long run, it’s difficult to be confident as a taxpayer. While new students bring money, he argues, non-discriminatory advertising will also bring students with expensive learning disabilities or language barriers into schools.
“Every student costs something,” Campbell says. “You can bring as many students as you want into a school, but they’ll all bring their differences, which are great for diversity, but lower net financial gain.”
Campbell says he doesn’t think the board’s enrolment investment will do much for schools that are already unpopular, but Best disagrees.
“Education is not dirtied by money,” Best says. “Money improves our programs which is good when you’re trying to market Ottawa as a place to learn. Education is an industry now, but that’s not a bad thing.”
Part of the recruitment investment will pay for the McGill Buckley marketing firm’s services. Stephen McGill, president of the firm, says the campaign isn’t about advertising, but rather communication.
“The thing that we’re hearing from parents and students is that they want information,” says McGill who has promoted the board in the past.
Redeveloping the board’s website, which gets thousands of hits per day, will be a priority. Some of the money will also be used to hold workshops for teachers and administrative staff, aiming to improve their communication skills.
The results of the first stage of the recruitment project could be seen as early as September, but the board hopes for a noticeable increase in enrolment.