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We have indeed heard the mantra before: the B.C. Liberals are providing the highest school funding ever.
Despite provincial claims to the contrary, there has been virtually no actual increase to public education funding between 1992 and the current year.
In fact, the 1990 operating grant (in 2006 dollars) was more than $200 more per pupil than we now receive.
While funding per student may have increased marginally, any rise disappears once inflation is factored in. Apart from salary costs negotiated and passed on by Victoria but not fully funded, inflation on our fuel, supplies and services place vast pressures on school district budgets.
Between 2001-02 and 2009-10, public education funding increased by 19 per cent while inflation increased by about 25 per cent.
Costs of new initiatives downloaded to school boards increased obligations to early literacy and preparing achievement contract information, which are not resourced by the ministry. As to full-day kindergarten the jury is still out and past experience does not breed optimism.
Services to our children triggered by special needs designations are not fully funded and must be subsidized from our operating grant.
All costs related to these additional components of our responsibilities have to be met by reducing services and programs for our kids.
This is the dilemma all boards in B.C. face.
Further, the authors assume fixed operating costs in our schools decrease when there is an enrolment decline.
Anyone familiar with the functions of our school districts knows better. Buildings must be lit, heated and cared for - grounds must be maintained, health and safety standards still require our vigilance. This costs money even if we temporarily have fewer students in our classrooms. Our neighbourhood schools are a treasured public asset and boards are obligated by our mandate to care for them.
Yes, we spend about 85 per cent of our operating grant on all wages and salaries. However - any valued public service is labour-intensive. What promotes learning more decisively than the teachers and other staff who toil in our schools?
All these people are devoted to providing the best learning opportunities under demanding material conditions even if it means unpaid working hours, unmanageable stress and out-of-pocket expense to resource our classrooms. Without their willingness to go beyond expected duties, our children would be in more dire straits at the hands of the ministry.
If the Liberal propaganda machine is hell-bent on rationalizing and promoting its savaging of public education, it will have to do better than this.
Blaming the people who are trying to nurture our children despite this thoughtless ideology is a distraction and a lie.
- reprinted from bclocalnews.com