By PAUL BENNETT (AIMS Author) • Troy Media, 22 November 2016 Almost two years after the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS) report Education on Wheels was released, New Brunswick decision-makers are still spinning their wheels. Few among the New Brunswick political class noticed that our report, released in January 2015, was subtitled Seizing Cost [...]
By MICHAEL ZWAAGSTRA (AIMS Fellow) • Troy Media, 18 November 2016 The recent presidential election campaign was one of the worst in U.S. history. As the two candidates slugged it out, neither showed much interest in intelligent engagement. In many ways, it was a campaign of ignorance. Fortunately, there is a remedy for ignorance – [...]
Governments in Atlantic Canada are over-spending on public education. A new study shows that between 2004 and 2014, the provinces spent significantly more money, even as enrollment went down. Adjusted for price changes, Atlantic Canada’s per-student subsidies increased 27 percent over a decade, amounting to about 2,700 more per child. It is unclear [...]
By JACKSON DOUGHART (Policy Analyst) and JOHN WILLIAMSON (Vice President of Research) • Charlottetown Guardian, 19 Sep 2016 For provincial governments, controlling spending requires discipline. But the payoff is more efficient social programs, a better public sector and a stronger economy with more people working. One avenue of uncontrolled spending is education. A new report, [...]
Education experts agree: critical thinking is an essential skill for today’s students. But to instill this ability in our children, we can’t abandon tools that are proven effective. Traditional education approaches focus on producing competent teachers, serious content, and rigour from children. But these ideas have fallen out of fashion. So-called “student-centred” methods [...]
By JOHN WILLIAMSON (Vice President of Research) • Telegraph-Journal, 14 Sep 2016 The New Brunswick government released its budget update two weeks ago. The picture isn’t pretty. The province will borrow more money because expenditures increased faster than anticipated. Once again, we are reminded the government has a spending problem. Since 2005, New Brunswick’s program [...]
By Michael Zwaagstra, AIMS Education Fellow Michael Zwaagstra discusses recent literature from the department of education in New Brunswick, which professes to make critical thinking and 21st century skills "embedded in expectations for students." To succeed, Zwaagsta argues, they strengthen traditional learning methods such a memorization, giving students a strong basis of knowledge. Read this [...]
In Atlantic Canada, school enrollment has dropped 19 percent since the year 2000. These are worrying numbers. The next generation’s base of labour and taxes is shrinking. Families are moving west to seek better opportunities. Natural birthrates decline. Greater healthcare costs dominate public funds. Meanwhile, our education system is under-performing. The upcoming generation [...]
Vice President of Research John Williamson writes that bad economic policies in New Brunswick gives one the impression that its government has stopped trying to reverse the province's woes. Banning hydraulic fracking, maintaining protectionist measures on alcohol, and inadequate education are mixing with outmigration to produce an economic death spiral. This article appeared in the [...]
Elected officials mean well when they lobby to reduce class sizes. But the evidence doesn't support their efforts. Education research shows that having fewer students in a class has little influence on learning. A far more important metric is the quality of the instruction. Classrooms of 30 children with a great teacher are [...]