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Does anyone know how many schools each district has closed since 2000?
We are currently fighting district 53 in Oliver BC , South Okanagan .They will decide May 25th/2011 if they will close Tuc-El-Nuit Elementary and push the 220 plus students into another school putting it over capacity. All to save 385,000. At what cost!
Great question Shelley.
Journalism prof Crawford Killian recently reported on this in The Tyee Online. Here’s an extract:
“Forty-four of B.C.’s 60 school districts have closed 176 schools since 2002, and over 50 more closures are certain or threatened over the next couple of years. But demographic projections suggest that closures are a short-term solution that will create a long-term problem.”
More at: http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2010/02/18/SchoolClosures/
Killian’s story is based on a database that the BCTF started compiling to track school closures in BC. The BCTF database, which provides more details, can be accessed here:
http://bctf.ca/data.cfm?page=SchoolClosures
I’m happy to see this site and to know that this vital work is carrying on. I’m interested in the present ideological motivations of those members of the (rather amorphous) middle class who increasingly turn to private schools. This is a significant departure from the 50s, 60s and 70s, where the project of truly universalized public education was strongly supported by all but a small elite with a perverse penchant for the odious British public (meaning private) school model. Catholic parochial schools were a different issue, with most students changing to public high school after elementary school. The perception that private schools deliver a ‘superior’ education (whatever that might be) is not supported by research and, despite ongoing budget mayhem, the public system continues to provide excellent, truly comprehensive schooling. Just ask UBC’s Dr. George Bluman. So, what is going on here and how can public education advocates reclaim the moral high ground? I’m shocked that during 10 years in power, the NDP did not claw back even a minimal amount of the public money designated for private schools.
In response to your observations Marcy I would like to offer some of my thoughts. I am a retired elementary school principal and I have been retired now for nine years but I continue to be very concerned about what’s happening to our public school system. My training many years ago now, included the Philosophy of Education and there I learned the important place public education has in any healthy society. It’s only in our public schools that we have an opportunity to pass on from generation to generation our shared values as a society. Private schooling on the other hand, and I include home schooling here, passes on a biased set of values based on religious or other beliefs. When we loose our public schools we lose the cornerstone and the foundation of who and what we are as Canadians. Muslim extremists know this, creating schools where students slave over the Koran all day long as they strive to be citizens of their Islamic state.
I believe that our political leaders at the moment, also believe that their beliefs and values are better passed on in private schools. They have this ridiculous and totally unfounded fear that today’s teachers are instilling socialistic, dare I say communistic beliefs at the direction of the notorious BCTF. The Fraser Institute and others like them have continued to propagate these fears, supported by mass media and politics. It’s so sad and so untrue. Public school teachers just want to do the job they have been trained to do, no politics, no unfounded pressure and above all a fair shake.
Our public school system has been under attack now for way too long and I’m not sure it can survive if things don’t change. Without public support, more and more parents will send their children to private schools and the public school system will be left with a minority of our children; those from economically deprived families and poor parts of town. The cost of this will be horrific. Our society will become one of polarized special interests and values. No shared vision or values, just fragmented and poorly educated.
Most people aren’t aware of this but private schools and home schoolers aren’t held to standards and are not held accountable to the common good. They are pretty well free to pack the curriculum with whatever prejudice and values they choose.
As public schools close in an ever increasing number and financial support disappears, the outcome to me is obvious and it’s not good.
Ken, you raise a good point, which is about the rationale for having a public education system in the first place. We’ve come to take public education for granted and many Canadians have lost sight of the reasons for having it in the first place.
Everyone understands the rationale for universal health care – the reasons are obvious. But appreciating the reasons for having a strong universal public education system requires a little more thought.
In other words, we need some public education about what public education is all about.
John Raulston Saul gave an amazing speech titled “In defence of public education” in 2004 at Magee Secondary in Vancouver. You can listen to it here:
http://www.workingtv.com/johnralstonsaul.html
If anyone knows of other essays or papers that effectively capture the rationale for public education, please send us links.
Thanks for the very thoughtful comments. I am currently engaged in research on this topic for an article and will focus on BC since 1980. The same problem, private school ascendency, is found in the USA (of course), in the UK and Australia. In Canada and the UK, universal, free elementary education dates back only to 1871 and became a reality for a number of reasons, one of which was to ensure a minimally-trained workforce. Social reformers and the trade union movement were strong early advocates (in fact the growth of trade unionism is concomitant with the public school initiative) and included notions of human rights and democratic values in their rationales. The evolution of mandatory secondary education (up to ages 14-15) dates to the first decade of the c20th and, in Canada, one promoter was the Canadian Manufacturers Association. By the immediate post WW Two period, the public school had become a foundational institution in the dominant conceptualization of Canadian democracy. That reality is eroding, and with it, a commonly-held ideal of what education is, who gets it, what it should do, and how it should be funded. One of my hunches about those who are ‘new’ private school choosers is that middle class status anxiety and the perception that a ‘better’ (than the public model) quality of education is delivered at private schools combine to motivate them. The status impetus reflects a recent need to control everything and plan a cradle to graduate school life for one’s children and in so doing, to avoid ‘that which is deemed undesirable.’ When I was the Head Teacher at a Vancouver mini-school I frequently had to redirect single-minded parents who were overly ambitious for their children. It seemed neurotic to me that parents were hand wringing about their kids’ chances of getting into Standford (a private university) before they had even left grade seven! The erroneous notion that private education offers ‘better’ quality than does the public system is fed in part by the reality that the former chooses its students, both in actuality and because the cost of attending is prohibitive. Hence, few (if any) students with special needs or children from low income families implies to some that classes will be more academically challenging than they are in the truly diverse environments of the public school. Some parents who choose private school
believe that teachers there are more highly qualified than their public school counterparts or that the absence of the BCTF somehow improves educational / academic rigour. The qualifications issue seems irrelevant: in Vancouver a significant % of teachers have either MAs or PB plus 15 and as the force gets younger, the number of degrees increase, while the BCTF issue is just nonsense: BCTF campaigns to lower class size focus on exactly one point that private schools tout in their favour! Small classes.
If you have any more thoughts, links or suggestions, I’d love to read more responses.
I’m happy to hear that some serious research is being done by people such as you Marcy. Our academics in Education need to pick up this critical shift in parental behaviour and find out why it is happening and explain it for us in some definitive terms.
My main fear is that we will end up with a society somewhat similar to that in Mexico, for example, where the gap between rich and poor is significant and perpetuated by the sad state of public education. All the wealthy folk live up on the hill in secure compounds, with their children chauffeured to private schools while the children of the poor are forced to beg and work to survive while living down below in sub standard housing. I don’t think it’s too big a stretch to see this possibility here when we look back and see where we are now on this continuum. Our middle class is disappearing fast and the gap is widening between the have and have nots. This includes schools. Ten years ago when I was working I was part of this. I was fortunate enough to be in a “Have” school where fund raising and support were easy to come by. Parents moving here bought homes near my school so that their kids could attend it. Across town in the downtown area, the school was about the same size so it received the same funding but they had much less in the way of resources and materials for teachers and students. This deficit was compounded by the additional demands placed on the school by having to try and meet the needs of kids from dysfunctional and poverty stricken homes. So unfair. The Fraser Institute would have us believe that with better teachers and more effort schools like this one could do as well as the one I was in. Once again so unfair and so demoralizing.
Here is an excerpt from a letter I sent to the VSB and to Campbell and appropriate representatives. I also am including a note I sent to the Board who was making the decisions on where to cut…maybe my position on this is controversial but in the reality of what we are facing, now, today, I think it’s just common sense, a wide spread mediocre school system or fewer, strong world class schools?
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Dear Trustees and Board Members,
I realize this is a very challenging and difficult job. The Education system is underfunded and it’s truly a shame. Please do what you can to save our Librarians, Resource services, Teachers and Aides, Music, Band and Sports Programs. These things that make a well rounded engaging school experience for our kids. I know we have a decreased enrolment across the district. It’s time to make tough decisions. Is it really worth losing valuable enriching programs and making the whole system weak to keep every small school open? I think all kids will suffer for the sake of keeping tiny schools already barely functioning. I think it’s the lesser of the evils to keep fewer stronger GOOD schools with programs that engage our children versus the alternative; a substandard educations system within walking distance. I personally am already struggling to make sure my son gets the resource support he needs. Unfortunately he’s not “bad enough” to rate in our already strapped system. This can’t possibly get worse??
Please, our kids are counting on you.
Sincerely,
GB
Dear Mr. Gordon Cambell
As a parent of two Grade 2 students at Sir Richard McBride School in Vancouver, I am deeply concerned about the increasing effect of funding shortfalls, which results in the loss of services and supports to children like mine. The Vancouver school district and many other districts are projecting a large funding shortfall for the 2010/11 school year. Without a funding increase to cover this shortfall, the Vancouver School Board will be required to make drastic cuts to an already very lean and chronically underfunded school system.
My son is struggling with ADD and possible learning disability and is not getting enough support as things are. I shudder to think what school might be like for him with less support than the too-little he’s already getting at school. He needs an Education Assessment and due to the high wait list I have no idea when that will happen. With the high ESL population the Resource help is spread so thin and kids are basically triaged with who is the “worst off “versus helping each child who really needs it. The resource levels are already too low for the needs in Vancouver Schools. We are already forced to hire a private tutor to make sure he doesn’t fall further behind; this has made a huge financial impact on our family already struggling to break into an impossible housing market. With the coming shortfalls we may have to undergo further personal financial hardship to make sure he gets the help and support he deserves as a child in this Province. I don’t want to see a school without Music, Band, Choir, Sports, Field trips, Occupational Therapy, Psychologists, Counsellors and sufficient Resource Support. Many of our school buildings especially washroom facilities are frankly an embarrassment due to the chronic underfunding, by all appearances and functionality, since the 1940s.
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Feeling very frustrated…I hope many many parents attend the VSB meeting April 12th at 7pm
Thanks for sharing your excellent letter.
And no, I don’t think your position is controversial at all. Many in Vancouver are asking that same question, including me. If it comes down to choosing between teachers and buildings (or computers or secretaries) I firmly believe that essential teaching resources should be the last things that we cut.
But in practice, I’m coming to understand, it’s not that simple. Legislative requirements effectively protect a host of administrative roles which we all see as diverting dollars from students. And closing schools won’t offset more than a fraction of the $18 million shortfall facing Vancouver (unless we close about half of them and then where do we put the kids?). Plus the Province has been sending confusing messages about whether they will need all that extra capacity for full-day and early K in another year or two. Plus neighbours are going to be very unhappy if they have boarded-up schools in their communities.
And if we close schools, the first ones to go based on surplus capacity will probably displace the most vulnerable kids and supports from the most vulnerable communities in our city, so this ends up being far more difficult to do than it may seem at first.
It’s also worth reading the studies on the values of preserving small schools (see the Small Schools tab on the right, above)
Nevertheless, others have urged Vancouver to consider closures in order to save critical supports like Special Ed or programs like school Bands and that could very well be what ends up happening.
I’ve been around this so many times and I keep coming back to the same conclusion: there is no way to do this without hurting kids and further weakening the system overall.
I completely see the benefit of small schools and schools in vulnerable neighbourhoods. Unfortunately ALL kids will suffer when resources and programs are cut and I think to a much greater degree than if location and size of schools change. After 3 years in the Public School System I think we’re hanging on the edge of a functional effective system here in the VSB….I can’t see how these cuts can do anything but make a struggling system into a flatly BAD one. We have come to a point of chosing the lesser of two evils which is never desirable or easy. Unless our Government suddenly has an epiphany and shells our more cash before April 30th we’ll be running on empty and tough choices must be made and parents must be realistic and support the short term decisions and continue to fight for money so we can maintain some sort of viable Public Education System in our City. I have spoken to two families this week with kids with issues….between them 8 kids are moving to Private Schools. We are a sinking ship it’s time to lighten the load.
Hi,
My name is Maddie Snelgrove, I’m 16 and in grade 11 at Rossland Secondary School. My English class is doing a persuasive essay and mine is on the school closure issue in our school district (SD20), mainly basing it in Rossland,BC. We need to do a visual aspect of our essay and I’m going to be making a video interviewing students at RSS, perhaps some from Maclean Elementary/ESS (French immersion) and also hopefully parents and other completely random people on the street. I was wondering if when it is done, you could post it on the Stop Education Cuts blog to get some awareness and so it has a broader range of people seeing it. Perhaps even my essay to go along with it when it is all finished. I feel very strongly of this issue and would love to do this if you’ll let me.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and have a nice day,
Maddie Snelgrove
Rossland Secondary School
Hi Maddie,
That sounds like a terrific project. The issues around public education are in essence 100% about students like you, so it is imperative that older students get involved and that everyone hears your voices loud and clear.
We would be hugely honoured to share your video and essay on this website and with our 3,600 (and growing) Facebook members!
I would love to start a whole section of this Website where we invite students to take over and share their thoughts and advice. Your project may be just the kind of catalyst that we need to get something like that going, so do send us both as soon as they’re ready!
Sorry for getting back to you so late, I was never notified of the reply to my comment!
Here’s the link to my video:
I also have an article in our school’s online newspaper (http://rssgazette.ca/news/school-board-bullying-school-district-plans-close-rss-again) talking about our issue.
I would personally LOVE to get more students involved in fighting school closures. They don’t seem to realize just how much it will effect them, their family, friends and community!
I attended the Monday meeting but had to leave so I don’t know what finally transpired. Could someone please fill me in?
Thanks
KS
Hi there – we’ve agreed to collaborate on letter campaigns (e.g. just adopting Shaughnessy’s postcard campaign), plus rallies etc with a focus on the Education Minister & MLAs, to persuade them to fully fund public education to avert cuts. Over 100 parents from 64? PACs, many of which are now organizing their own campaigns. Details on our Vancouver page:
http://stopeducationcuts.org/districts/vancouver/
Plus we’ve started a Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=118201294859293
I will email you the notice that was sent out after the meeting.
DS
2010 Budget Presentation to the Vancouver Board of Education
Presented by Ashton Garay, Youth Voice
April 15th, 2010
Introduction:
I would like to acknowledge the traditional shared territories of the Coast Salish peoples.
Good evening Trustees, and Staff of the Vancouver Board of Education. My name is Ashton Garay, I am Shimshiam First Nations and a grade 11 student at Vancouver Technical Secondary School. I am here to speak from a youth perspective about the 2010 proposed budget.
The recommendations in this presentation reflect my voice and I am sure reflecting similar concerns other youth have.
I want to thank the Trustees and staff for their past support of the enhancement of Aboriginal Education and student success.
The VSB’s Core purpose states: “It is our collective responsibility to ensure the highest quality of learning experience for all students with a focus on student engagement, learning and development in a safe, inclusive environment.”
I am concerned that the proposed budget will not be able to provide the much needed resources to ensure the highest quality of learning… for all students. And in fact would greatly impact families who are marginalized, many who are Aboriginal.
As you are aware, the Aboriginal communities have not shared the same educational opportunities as other communities and continue to face many challenges. But we all want to have a successful learning experience.
As the Youth Representative for the Aboriginal Education Enhancement Agreement (AEEA), I was very hopeful that we would begin to see big changes in our schools and Aboriginal students would experience the promised core purpose.
But the proposed budget has me worried that this will not happen. I am left wondering about many things and would like to leave you with some thoughts to consider during your final budget discussions.
Please Consider:
How does the proposed budget support the Aboriginal Education Enhancement Agreement goal areas; Belonging, Mastery and Culture and Community?
Many Aboriginal families have financial challenges and rely on the school to provide academic support and engaging learning and cultural experiences.
When there are less resources and time supporting teachers and administrators, who will provide the extra tutoring, guidance and mentoring for the Aboriginal youth? There should be resource blocks or tutoring every day for those who need it.
When there is a possible loss of music programs, how will Aboriginal families get a chance to share in a non-traditional music forms? They won’t be able to pay for private lessons.
Families who have financial challenges don’t have the extra money for fees or team uniforms. Many youth are left with nothing to do after school. Schools should be able to offer after school support or activities for all students not just those who make the team or have money.
The Enhancement Agreement recognizes the need to increase the staff and students understanding of authentic histories and cultural awareness. How can we do this when there is a proposed reduction in District Consultant support that help teachers learn at professional Development opportunities?
The proposed budget recommends reduced staffing, reduced principal and vice principal time in some inner city schools and at secondary schools, there will be fewer area-councilors, psychologist and speech language services. These resources are needed to ensure that Aboriginal students and families get the leadership and the support they need.
Conclusion:
I would again like to thank the current and previous School Board members for their ongoing work in supporting Aboriginal youth. I hope that you consider all my questions and how the proposed budget has an impact on Aboriginal learners and their families. With fewer resources at the schools, families will have less and less money or support. I hope that you are concerned about all the added stress and demand that these cuts would have on our communities. And again, I ask you to consider how the proposed budget supports the goals of the Aboriginal Education Enhancement Agreement that we all signed June 25th, 2009.
Thank you,
Why should I care, both my children have graduated from School district #82 – Coast Mountain School District. Maybe because I am a concerned citizen and I don’t want someone else to suffer what their child should of been entitled too. I have lived in Kitimat since 1981 and since that time our children have not only lost great teachers but people that could inspire them in the arts. There is nothing left in this community for our children to aspire too or want to come back too.
The district is even now considering closing our second ice rink which in this community would be considered a place of worship. When you are considered less than the bottom 10 schools to graduate from, what real hopes do you have in getting into reputable post secondary schools.
Well, if you were first nations you would have no problem, for the rest of british columbians that weren’t first nations’ you are left scratching your heads. I know because my son had over a 97 % average when when he graduated from MESS (Mount Elizabeth Secondary School), and because the University of British Columbia was on strike, he ended going to the University of Alberta, and really wants to study medicine in BC. Where there is such a shortage, but Government and University make or have no commitment to northern applicants in their own country or northern communities. I guess only the ones that come from South Africa matter to our B.C. Government that have no comment to our Country nor communities.
All I can tell you is this has been a painful and learning experience for my son. Doesn’t matter how much he studies or how much he goes into debt for student loans, he doesn’t matter no matter what he does or how much volunteer time he does. There is no one to stand behind us but his parents and he has to settle for less than what he wants to become. How do you live with yourself?
Does anyone know what percent of the BC provincial budget is spent on education compared to their previous budget and the one before that? I heard it went from 30% to 22% to 18%. Something like that but I would like to have the exact numbers.
Hi Ann – that information is included in the Saanich budget presentation posted on our Facts and Research page. See slide 4 of the Powerpoint presentation linked here:
http://stopeducationcuts.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/vista-feb-2010-1.ppt
A letter I sent to our education minister:
To the Honorable Margaret MacDiarmid,
As a parent of a special needs daughter in the Delta public school system and an educational assistant employed in a Richmond BC public school, I would like to ask some questions if I may in regards to our special needs students of B.C.
Upon the decisions made by individual boards and trustees of schools throughout B.C. to manage their budgets we are seeing devastating cuts made to our special needs children.
I have read and understand the Ministry’s provisions for supports required within the Special Education Services Manual and know now that these needs will not be in met in the district of Richmond BC.
I would like to ask if the Ministry is going to then increase the amount that has been allotted per special needs student to provide the services that the require to allow for “equitable education”?
Funding has increased to our schools but, the lions’ share has been divided between teacher salary increases and all day kindergarten, leaving the boards and trustees with minimal funds to work with to support our students. I don’t know if you are aware but, our school is in a crisis, not a pinch. We will have several students that will not receive equitable and adequate education as a result of funding allotted to these students.
If we can ask for a realistic increase in funding for our special needs children specifically, we can avoid serious consequences that may result next year. We are not only talking about education, we are asking for safety. With drastic lay offs of support staff to assist these students, they will not be given the amount of care and attention they deserve. I ask that changes be made for our Autistic funding and an increase of time and monies be considered as this population is growing within our schools today. The .5 amount for special education assistants or ½ time is not sufficient as most of these students require self care, safety provisions and constant supervision. It simply isn’t enough.
I am not interested in hearing that the government has given increased amounts to education every year; these changes do not impact our special needs students. The money has gone to teachers’ salaries, all day K, and a debt owed from annual facilities grant that was not given last year, carbon costs, HST etc. All these extra costs strip the very right to an equitable education away from our students.
When will you listen? When there is an appeal filed against the government for inadequate education? Or worse, when a child becomes seriously injured or a death results from inadequate staffing?
Sincerely,
Sandra Sawyer
Special Education Assistant and parent of a special needs child
I like so dissagree with education cutbacks, and our School Board #92, if you all can see what is really going on with our District you all be socked, they got thier dam priority’s all mixed up, why cut back when you can support sports, Olympics, hockey team, war, Why school cut backs, time to let go some staff members of school Board, quit that traveling business, train online, this is why we have internet and teleconference, video conference, quit taking monies from our children. this is sad. reallysad, come on government wake the heck up, when you were in school no one took your money huh? anybody rip you off from getting taught? come on government time to stop spending so much money on your trips, clothing, start eating at mcdonald and stop spending money on expensive hotels, use the camping grounds, save money, quit cutting back on our kids.
Has everyone read the September article in the Vancouver Sun about B.C.’s educational system? It outlines the curriculum deficits and inability for the school system to support it. This information is so timely when compared to the Oprah Winfrey coverage on the U.S. school system earlier this week. To view the Vancouver Sun article go to http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100921/bc_kindergarten_study_100921/20100921/?hub=BritishColumbiaHome
To see what is being done throughout Canada and is a little known commodity go to http://www.schoolscool.com This program hits the curriculum issues that are currently being addressed and makes a huge difference in bridging the gap-it did for my son!
my name is caitlin and i,m not happy about the school cuts so could you please give our schools supplies back =(
hi my name is caitlin and i,m not happy about the cuts so could you please give back our schools back so i’ll be able to learn .