Quebec schools: end of the envelope dedicated to books

The book community is concerned about the reform of the budgetary rules for school service centers announced by the Minister of Education, Sonia LeBel.

The latter promises to reduce the bureaucratic burden of a series of budgetary rules, but those in the book world fear that this reduction will increase the marked decline, in 2025, in book purchases by primary and secondary educational establishments.

There are currently 261 budget envelopes from which school service centers (CSS) and school boards draw, and this number will increase to 37, due to the merger of numerous envelopes. Establishments will thus have much more room to maneuver in the allocation of the sums they receive from the government.

The measure that worries the book community is the grouping of eight envelopes into a new category called Sports, cultural and social activities.

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Until now, a protected envelope was devoted to the purchase of books. For the purchase of any book, the establishment paid one third, and the government, the remaining two thirds. Quebec granted the sum of $16 million for this program, and the CSS were to provide $8 million.

It was also from this envelope that $300 was provided to each teacher at the start of the school year to purchase books for their class, a measure of $11.6 million. In all cases, these books had to come from an approved bookstore.

A first hard blow in 2025

However, by grouping the eight envelopes, each CSS will have full autonomy to spend the money there, so not necessarily to buy books.

The sector had already suffered a first hard blow last year, following an announcement of budgetary restrictions from the Minister of Education at the time, Bernard Drainville.

The Gaspard 2025 report, published by the French-language title bank, shows an 11.9% drop in purchases by libraries and schools, which represents around 250,000 fewer children’s books, especially in schools, compared to the previous year, according to the Quebec Booksellers Association (ALQ).

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What initially worried us was that the Ministry of Education had announced budget cuts last year on the last day of classes. This caused uncertainty in the CSS and in schools, and a sharp drop in purchasesunderlines the president of theALQLaurence Monet.

Referring to a survey by the Association for the Promotion of School Documentary Services, Ms. Monet said that he had indicated that no one really knew how to manage this first announcement of cuts.

There were school service centers where it had fallen by 70%, others which had remained without a drop, secondary schools which had cut book purchases by 100%. There is a misunderstanding of the measures, namely whether or not they have the right to use book budgets.

Compete in sports?

If she welcomes the desire to reduce bureaucracy, the president of theALQ fears that this decline will be even worse.

When we merge envelopes like the book envelope, that’s where it really puts the entire book chain at risk, whether bookstores, publishers, authors, the chain of creators, distributors, and that’s without taking into account the harmful effects on the training of future citizens. Being in direct competition with other expenses like sport makes no sense. Sport is necessary, but books are the basis of learning. This is not an optional expense.

One of the problems with measures aimed at encouraging the purchase of books is that none of them obliges CSS and schools to do it, she continues. The incentive of paying two-thirds of the cost of a book instead forces institutions to spend the other third. In other words, if they are asked to reduce their spending, why would they add an expense to buy books if they don’t have to?

Call to Fréchette and Drainville

The idea of ​​forcing educational institutions to use money intended for the purchase of books, This is something that we would also like to push further, recognizes Ms. Monet. Obviously, this becomes difficult if the envelopes are merged with others.

But what we really want is for our envelope to remain intact, for there to be no merger of envelopes, for Christine Fréchette and Bernard Drainville to take a position on the issue and commit to protecting budgets for reading in schools.

L’ALQ has sent three letters to the Minister of Education since the start of the year, including two which were signed by a large number of players in the book industry, but has received no response to date

Minister LeBel’s office, however, responded to The Canadian Press with a rather laconic missive which pushes back the question of budgets for the purchase of books: The budgetary rules will be submitted in the coming weeks to the network partnersnous a-t-on écrit.

The only substitute for screens

After reaffirming that the educational success of students remains its priority, the minister’s office adds that educational organizations must make appropriate choices based on their environment. The government will always provide clear guidelines and objectives to achieve, and that will not change. Managers will be accountable for achieving these objectives and for the decisions they make.

For Laurence Monet, however, the Ministry of Education must go much further than that, otherwise it risks failing in one of its other stated priorities, she says: We have a ministry here which claims to protect French and fight screens. If we remove the only tool that allows us to succeed in these two missions, which is the book, it doesn’t work.