Link between education and poverty in Manitoba to be tackled by new task force

The link between poverty and a student's education — as well as ways to address the issue — are on the plate of a new provincial task force, the Manitoba government announced Friday.

The new task force will meet bimonthly over the next 18 months to examine how poverty impacts students' school outcomes, a news release from the province said.

It will be made up of as many as 25 members — including students, parents, teachers, school leaders, Indigenous representatives and organizations, and other community experts — and co-chaired by a member of the poverty reduction committee and an education expert.

The impact of poverty on education was highlighted in a report released earlier this year by the commission that reviewed the K-12 system in Manitoba, the news release said.

The task force is to seek out best practices and lived experience from experts and present a proposed plan of action to the provincial cabinet's poverty reduction committee by October 2022.

At the end of its 18-month term, the task force will be reviewed to determine whether it will conclude or continue its work.

The Manitoba Teachers' Society and Manitoba School Boards Association have been calling for years for the government to address child poverty in the province.

Earlier this year, MTS president James Bedford said the pandemic has magnified the inequities faced by children dealing with poverty.

Ways to address the issue in schools could include government-led meal programs and finding solutions to make education accessible in a remote-learning situation, he said at the time.

Those suggestions are mirrored in the terms of reference for the new task force. The document says the initial focus for the group may include food access and security, a universal meal program, access to technology, transportation, and other socio-economic barriers.

In the government release, Education Minister Cliff Cullen said the issue of poverty extends beyond the education system and requires a whole-of-systems approach to identify barriers and solutions.

As such, the work of the task force will lead to holistic support for the needs of children and youth, and respond to the impacts of poverty on learning, he said.

NDP MLA Nello Altomare, the Opposition's critic for education, said the PC government's track record makes it hard to trust its commitment to poverty reduction.

"They repealed key parts of the Poverty Reduction Strategy Act so they could evade accountability, they refused to address poverty in Bill 64, and they said breakfast programs in schools to feed hungry kids were a 'bad idea,' Altomare said in an emailed statement.