Surrey schools facing $16 million budget shortfall for upcoming year, board says

The Surrey Board of Education says it needs to find $16 million to balance the budget for next school year.

B.C.‘s largest school district is blaming insufficient provincial government funding increases and continued population growth for an anticipated $16-million budget shortfall in the 2025-26 school year.

By law, the Surrey Board of Education must pass a balanced budget, which means cuts to programs will be required, according to budget chair Terry Allen.

“We’re hopeful that there’s going to be no layoffs,” Allen told CTV News on Friday.

“But there will be cuts to programs, there will be changes to how we deliver teachers, non-enrolling teachers will be put into the classroom. Everything’s on the table to balance the budget.”

Regarding programs that could be on the chopping block, Allen named Grade 7 band and the Strong Start program, as well as the South Surrey/White Rock Learning Centre, which is already slated to close after this school year.

“We spend $55 million more on special education than we receive, and so all of those things are clearly going to be on the table,” Allen said.

In a news release Friday, the school district said the shortfall “is due to provincial funding not keeping pace with inflationary pressures and years of population growth in Surrey.”

The district’s budget for the current school year is $1.142 billion, and it too was passed with “difficult, sometimes heartbreaking” cuts, according to Allen.

“Everybody in this entire province knows what inflation is doing to their household budgets, so you can only imagine, on a $1-billion budget, what it’s doing to the Surrey School District,” he said.

The district’s release notes that 93 per cent of its budget goes to teacher and staff salaries and benefits, leaving little flexibility for reducing costs elsewhere.

As it works to meet its fiscal challenges, the board of education is encouraging parents and community members to complete the district’s budget consultation survey, which will remain open until April 6.

Asked for comment on Surrey schools' plight, Minister of Education and Child Care Lisa Beare noted that the province has “steadily increased” operating funding since 2017, but did not address the topic of inflation directly.

“Our government is committed to ensuring B.C.’s school districts have the resources they need to meet the needs of todays’ students, so all students have access to an inclusive, quality learning environment that supports them to achieve their best,” Beare said in a statement.

“We recognize Surrey is one of B.C.’s fastest growing communities, and my ministry will continue to collaborate with the Surrey School District to identify and address challenges so that all students can get what they need to succeed and thrive in school.”

Beare noted that the province provided more than $1 billion in operating and special grants to the Surrey School District for the current school year, and highlighted capital investments totalling nearly $1 billion in the district – more than the provincial government has provided to any other school system.

According to the ministry, the average amount of operating funding per student province-wide is more than $13,000 per student, resulting in a total of more than $8 billion – including special grants – in provincial education spending in the 2024-25 school year.

That’s an increase of $2.8 billion – or roughly 54 per cent – since the B.C. NDP formed government at the end of the 2016-17 school year, according to ministry data.