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VANCOUVER — A one per cent tax on wealth over $20 million would generate nearly twice as much revenue as previously calculated by the Parliamentary Budget Officer, money that could lift thousands of Canadians out of poverty and fund health, social and environmental programs says new research by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, BC Office. 
The provincial government is continuing its education reform agenda in the middle of a global pandemic. The experience of Ontario’s education reforms is a cautionary tale on how public policy can exacerbate inequality in education.
Like elsewhere in Canada, public schools in Manitoba have endured an unprecedented year of turmoil and turbulence with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Nevertheless, this is far from the first year of challenge and change for Manitoba education. 
The winter/spring 2020 issue focuses on the ways in which the neoliberal education agenda and austerity governments are reshaping education across the country, and the impact of these changes on kids — particularly the most vulnerable — and communities. But it also illustrates the passion with which the public will defend its schools and support their educators and education workers. It includes a cross-country scan of standardized assessment policies. 
The summer/fall 2020 Our Schools/ Our Selves digs into the underlying issues of equity and access that have been revealed and exacerbated by the COVID-19-related shutdown and subsequent move to online and remote learning; a cross-country scan provides an overview of the various funding mechanisms currently in place for public education in each province and territory to illustrate the link between funding, policy and priorities. 
What have post-pandemic school reopening policies revealed about provincial priorities, and how have public education advocates, parents, students and communities responded? Can we take this moment in time to effectively advocate for a vision of public education that is more responsive to student needs, more reflective of the diverse communities our schools must serve, and more aware of the role schools play as places of learning and places of work, particularly in the context of a global pandemic and a growing mental health crisis?
A version of this piece is forthcoming in Our Schools Our Selves published by CCPA National
"If we learn anything from COVID-19," write Lindsay McLaren and Trish Hennessy in their cover feature for this issue, "it should be that we need to build and foster a more comprehensive version of public health that acts on what we know about the social determinants of well-being." Economy and health are not separate things, they argue, and public health policy should not be limited to matters of primary care.