Weeks after mounting pressure from unions and opposition parties for making cuts to education, François Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government has announced more than half a billion dollars for student services. Education Minister Bernard Drainville announced on social media Wednesday that the provincial government will invest “up to $540 million” for the school network and that all funds “must be used to finance direct services to students, not for anything else.” Quebec’s education ministry had come under fire after announcing at the end of the last school year that the network would have to reduce its spending by nearly $570 million by the fall. The ministry had asked English school boards and French-language service centres to cut $510.8 million from the 2025-2026 fiscal year, and an additional $56.9 million from the private schools – for a total of $567.7 million. The announcement on Wednesday did not mention whether or not the requested budget cuts still stand. In response to the request in June, Parti Québécois (PQ) MNA Pascal Bérubé launched a petition on the National Assembly website, calling on the government not to make any cuts that would directly affect student services. As of late Wednesday morning, it had collected 157,739 signatures. Reacting to Drainville’s announcement, Bérubé said the newly announced funding is the result of his “record-breaking petition in education.” On Wednesday, Drainville said in a post on X that he consulted with school organizations and listened to their feedback over the past month. “These past few weeks have provided an opportunity to review CSS [Centre de services scolaire] spending. This exercise will not continue and intensify,” the minister wrote. The new money “is not an open bar,” Drainville said, adding that it does come with some conditions. Of the $540 million announced, $425 million will be allocated to a dedicated envelope, and each CSS will have to “demonstrate that it has made efforts to reduce its administrative expenses and commit to using the money solely for student services. Accountability will be required,” according to the minister. The government is also adding a $29 million envelope for private schools. Drainville added: “The maximum number of employees at certain CSSs is being increased to take into account their specific circumstances, particularly an increase in the number of students to be enrolled in their territory. In concrete terms, all CSSs will see their budgets increase.” ‘Devil is in the details,’ says head of English school boards The head of the Quebec English School Boards Association (QESBA) welcomed the funding announcement with some guarded optimism. “The devil is in the details,” said president Joe Ortona, who says it’s still unclear how much every school board will receive and where the money will be allocated. “It is a first step in the right direction that we hope is going to be a first of many,” he said. “But it’s important to remember that the government mishandled this, and the reason why they’re scaling back is not because they listened to what the people, the experts in education were saying. We essentially had to shame them into doing this. They decided to cut everything at the last minute. They doubled down, they tripled down, and it’s only because people were very outspoken, they said that this was crazy, that we could never meet these targets and over 150,000 people signed a petition that the government finally realized that they were not going to get away with this.” Ortona said he has trouble trusting the current government after last year when it surprised school boards with a $200 million budget cut, putting all new building projects and non-essential renovations on hold. “So is this another announcement that they’re making in July that they’re going to then reverse again in December? Who knows? Which is why it’s really important that we have to remain vigilant and continue to advocate for the best education that the children deserve, and make it clear that these cuts were unacceptable and will always be unacceptable.” The English Parents Committee Association (EPCA) and the Fédération des comités de parents du Québec (FCPQ) released a statement on Wednesday to react to the new budget rules for the education network, which they say are “less dire than expected.” “It is unacceptable that our children’s future continues to be put at risk in the name of balancing budgets. Educational services are not a luxury — they are essential,” said EPCA president Katherine Korakakis. CTV News asked the education minister’s office for clarification as to where the $540 million is coming from, but did not receive a response before publication time. But according to the Official Opposition, Wednesday’s announcement is a sign “that definitely the government is backing down from a bad decision” from its June budget cuts, “even if it’s not saying it,” said Madwa-Nika Cadet, the Liberal Party’s education critic, in an interview. While calling it a relief for students, she, too, was also hesitant to celebrate Drainville’s new budget rules. “I would still be very cautious if I was working in the education system, thinking that the government is saying that they’re investing up to $540 million. So ‘up to’ means that there’s a big question mark on what will happen in the meantime, and making sure that the government is not deciding to [back] down on this amount,” she said, “because we do know that there are no excesses in the education sector. There are no surpluses. There is no money that is wasted in the education sector.”
