Legislative Assembly ficiencies of the smaller units and provide a great opportunity to reshape educa¬ tional policies in the province. The conslidation of our one and two room schools in the larger units has been underway for a number of years now. This program will be pursued vigorously in 1969 towards the goal envisaged in our master-plan of forty-five consolidated schools for the Province of Prince Edward Island . Twenty-four of these units are already operating, which leaves twenty-one still to be established. Mr. Speaker , schools to be constructed in the future will have an average enrolment in the neighbourhood of 500 students. It is our feeling that a school of two hundred students or less leaves something to be desired and in effect may create a problem in the years to come of consolidation of these small schools. This is the reason that people in our department who have considered this carefully are recommending an average school population of somewhere around 500 students. I am pleased to note that the Prince Edward Island Teachers' Federation have ex¬ pressed their satisfaction with our efforts in this particular direction and with our views on the desire for the school population at the consolidated level. And they have also, I am happy to say, endorsed our view with respect to the need of con¬ solidating several of an average population of 700-800 students. We have before us certain views respecting composite schools or comprehen¬ sive schools, which, Mr. Speaker , you very well know provide a school in which a student can get a diversified type of educational program embracing the academic, the business, the vocational and the technical fields. These courses will lead to all types of further education as well as to gainful and satisfying employment. Coupled with these opportunities in the composite school there would be the provision for qualified personnel in the areas of visual training, our libraries, the guidance and special education fields. With the establishment of four such compre¬ hensive schools, either through new buildings or through additions to existing build¬ ings, our young people in other parts of the Province will have the same oppor¬ tunities as do the students in Summerside and Charlottetown at the present time. The establishment of larger units of administration will provide for an equit¬ able distribution of educational costs in the Province. The necessity for one uniform rate of taxation for educational purposes throughout this Province has been urged by many groups and individuals not only this past year but through the years. At the present time the many and extreme variations in local tax support for education require a complex and highly elaborate grant and equalization structure to compen¬ sate for these inequities. These variations must be removed through a uniform rate of taxation on property and or some other form of taxation for educational purposes. The further development of our program for offering equal educational oppor¬ tunities to all young people in the Province will obviously require additional dollars. We are confident that the FRED program will provide us with much of the finances which are needed, and to that end our Department of Education has worked closely with the educationalists and the economists in the Economic Improvement Cor¬ poration. The target date for the completion of this program cannot be established at the present time. If the assistance through FRED over a ten year period is adequate, then, ten years would be our target date. If not, then, the target date for this matching program obviously would have to be extended slightly. Up to the present time, $12,598,000 has been spent on the construction and the equipment of high schools and consolidated elementary schools in this Province. It is estimated that to fully implement the master plan that we have in mind $13,109,000 additional will have to be made available. This figures includes an esti¬ mated cost for new construction of $11,925,000 and an increased cost of transpor¬ tation amounting to $1.1 million. Can we afford to have it? Of course we can; indeed, we cannot afford not to have it. If the kiddies in all parts of this province are to have the same oppor¬ tunities to develop the potential which they possess as do the children in Summer- side and Charlottetown . If this Province is to establish a goal which will eliminate —316—