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Grant Frost: Funding decisions may put Nova Scotia school libraries in jeopardy

“HRM has made the decision that they will no longer be funding librarians in schools.”

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This quote, although not a word-for-word transcription, was posted on social media last weekend by Education and Early Childhood Development Minister Brendan Maguire in response to questions being raised by school librarians in Halifax. At issue was a fairly robust rumour that, amid the current round of budgeting decisions, Halifax regional council was looking at changing the way it provides supplemental funding for Halifax Regional Centre for Education schools.

In short, if the budget passes in one of its current iterations, a great many school libraries in HRCE will be unstaffed come September.

To understand the nuance here, one has to understand supplementary funding.

Nova Scotia property owners, both residential and commercial, pay property tax. A portion of that tax, the mandatory education tax,  goes to funding education. In HRM, property owners pay slightly more on their tax bill each year to provide additional funding to schools governed by the Halifax Regional Centre for Education (HRCE), as well as the Conseil Scolaire Acadian Provincial (CSAP).

This arrangement dates back to amalgamation, and every few years HRCE and HRM revisit the agreement to discuss how the........

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