By Michael Zwaagstra (AIMS Research Fellow) The longstanding no-zero policy in Newfoundland and Labrador schools is no more. The CEO of the English School District recently announced that teachers are once again free to deduct marks for late work and assign marks of zero when work doesn’t come in at all. This is a significant step [...]
By GERRY BOWLER (Senior Fellow at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy) Frontier Centre for Public Policy, 31 July 2017 How much of a hero do you have to be to warrant a statue? How much of a villain do you have to be to have your name stripped from streets, bridges, or schools? The [...]
By MICHAEL ZWAAGSTRA (AIMS Research Fellow) The Guardian, 15 June 2017 Journal Pioneer, 16 June 2017 Troy Media, 19 June 2017 There have been many twists and turns in the P.E.I. education system these past few weeks. Pending teacher cuts gave way to an increase of 27 full-time equivalent teaching positions across the Island. Unfortunately, this [...]
New Brunswick's school enrollment is declining. Logically, fewer students should need fewer people to teach them. Instead, government has agreed employ no fewer than 7,280 teachers, regardless of enrollment decline. This decision will be expensive. The Province already spends 3,000 dollars more, per student, than it did last decade. With fewer students and [...]
In Newfoundland and Labrador, tough economic times have induced government to cut funding for Memorial University. This is a reasonable decision given financial challenges. Unfortunately, the province also wants to maintain a tuition freeze, keeping fees at Memorial the lowest in Canada. This decision will hamper the university's ability to operate and remain [...]
During the provincial election campaign, political parties in Nova Scotia presented their policy platforms, which detailed a governing agenda for the next four years. For the first time, the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies has released its own document, listing non-partisan policy proposals for the province's next government. Gleaned from interviews with [...]
By PAUL BENNETT (AIMS Author) News 95.7, The Rick Howe Show 11 May 2017 Public-Private Partnership (P3) schools come with a lot of baggage: opportunistic edu-preneurs, the Horton High “Taj Mahal,” "gold plated" school extras, and skimming-off cafeteria revenues tend to cement unflattering images in the public mind. They also colour most previous assessments of Nova [...]
On May 12, 2017, AIMS President & CEO Marco Navarro-Génie spoke with Tim Powers about the upcoming AIMS event in St. John's with John Risley. John Risley, OC, Chairman of AIMS, will speak at a luncheon at Sheraton St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador on Thursday, May 25th to business and thought leaders [...]
On May 11, 2017, AIMS author Paul W. Bennett joined the Rick Howe Show on News 95.7 FM to discuss his latest paper "Reinventing the Building of Schools."
Since the mid-1990s, Nova Scotia's government has made good use of public-private partnerships, or P3s, for school construction. Unfortunately, the record of these projects has been poorly understood, with some groups advocating that school construction be financed by government capital alone. In fact, the record of P3's has been strong. Government [...]