A New Brunswick watchdog is sounding the alarm over what he calls systemic failures in education budgeting.
Advocate Kelly Lamrock released a scathing report on Monday over the education department’s 2024-25 budget.
While Lamrock was quick to point out the department’s failures, he also credited the Holt government for acting when they were made aware.
“This year’s budget process exposed serious governance failures that this office has warned about previously,” Lamrock said in a news release accompanying his report.
“There are significant issues with how the Department has operated which are destabilizing the system, and action is needed to better define roles, set priorities, respect the law, ensure early intervention and proper resources when children struggle, and hold the system accountable.”
The advocate said the 2024-25 budget process failed to ensure accurate and complete information during both the budgeting and implementation processes.
That led to decisions that would have deeply harmed classrooms, student services and vulnerable children, said Lamrock.
“Cuts to Integrated Service Delivery (ISD) teams and supports for students with exceptional needs were initiated without proper impact assessments, communication with school districts, or plans to mitigate harm,” the advocate said in the release.
The province ultimately restored more than $14 million in funding and preserved up to 200 teaching positions, but Lamrock said last-minute rescues like this should not be necessary.
His report calls for clear accountability measures, early and intensive intervention for struggling students, stronger central oversight of ISD and a renewed education plan built around measurable outcomes.
Lamrock added that the decade-long decline in student achievement and teacher morale is more urgent than has been acknowledged.
“Fewer children are learning to read, add and think, we have normalized a cycle of failing to intervene early and breaking the law when the system fails, and we are struggling to support teachers and keep them in the profession,” he said.
“This is not a situation that calls for tinkering and promises to fix it ten years from now. Children do not age at the speed of study, and decision-makers have to act with urgency now.”
