Yesterday the Manitoba government announced a $1.32 billion dollar funding plan for public schools.

Minister of Education and Portage la Prairie MLA, Ian Wishart explains some of the highlights.

"We're moving to a centralized bargaining for teachers' [salaries]," says Wishart. "So, the Manitoba Teachers Society and the School Board Association will get together to try and design a path forward, so we can negotiate once instead of 38 times, which is not a particularly efficient way. We also announced the guidelines for school boards to have them to try and keep their tax increase to two percent or less."

Wishart notes some other significant announcements.

"We announced we're phasing out the tax incentive grant over six years, but no school division will be too badly impacted by that," says Wishart. "We also gave some guidelines on reducing administration for the coming year."

In regard to the Portage la Prairie School Division, Wishart notes the funding announcement should leave them in roughly the same place they were previously, and should remain fairly cost-neutral, though he adds they will have to look into administration, and the board will have to decide whether or not to increase the education tax.