Advocacy

 

2011 Updates

March 3: Georgia Straight: VSB Chair Patti Bacchus warns that more budget cuts are in store for 2010-11 unless Premier-designate Christy Clark honours her commitment to put “families first” and hikes Education budgets to cover growing costs. Read more

2010 Archives

Support Public Education Rally

Friday, November 12 at noon at the Premier’s office (3615 West 4th Ave)

November 12 has been chosen as a day of action as its one of the days cute from the school calendar due to the catastrophic cutbacks. Of course each of us has the right and responsibility to advocate for our own school if its threatened with closure. But, in addition, we all need to defend and advocate for every school, for every community, for every educational program for every student in the face of unprecedented government cutbacks.

Contact: Alliance of Parents and Partners to Lobby for Education in BC – applebritishcolumbia@gmail.com

April 28: Vancouver stakeholders sign joint letter urging minister to avert cuts

Vancouver trustees and representatives from all stakeholder groups signed a joint letter urging the minister to meet with them and to take action to avert $18 million in cuts due to provincial underfunding. Read the letter.

April 27: BC Education Coalition brief to VSB

Brief to the VSB public budget hearings highlights concerns about provincial underfunding and the terms of reference of the Special Adviser. Read the brief

April 11: DPAC media release urges parents to lobby MLAs on $18 million budget shortfall

Feb 2010: Vancouver’s District Parent Advisory Council wrote the Provincial government on behalf of Vancouver’s 55,000 parents, urging full funding for the school district.

February 2, 2010

Dear Dr. MacDiarmid,

As representatives of the parents/guardians of 55,000 children in Vancouver public schools, we are writing to express the urgent necessity that your government not shift unfunded costs on to local school boards in the 2010-2011 school year.

These downloaded costs will result in a SD39 minimum shortfall of 17 million dollars and are not in areas where boards have the discretion to spend less. Items which your government has so far refused to cover in provincial education funding grants include: (Read the full DPAC letter )

Other advocacy initiatives:

  • Windermere Secondary students launch Facebook group to protest cuts
  • Vancouver PACs come together as Vancouver Parents for Education to coordinate their fight against cuts
  • Most Vancouver PACs have now started letter campaigns, many adapted from Shaughnessy’s postcard campaign
  • Hastings Elementary parents launch Students before Stadiums campaign and website
  • Shaughnessy PAC launches a postcard campaign: Download their memo explaining the campaign and the postcards to copy and distribute
  • Vancouver’s staff unions have come together in a coalition with other local partners to advocate against cuts: Visit their website
  • Nootka PAC also has a letter campaign underway
  • Prince of Wales students have launched a Facebook group called: Against the VSB’s Preliminary Budget Proposal
  • Vancouver City Councillor Geoff Meggs: VSB budget crisis highlights the “case of haves vs. have-nots”
  • Bayview PAC hosted a rally on Feb 28th and is currently organizing a letter campaign.
  • VESTA – Vancouver Elementary School Teachers Association held a rally on March 1
  • Queen Elizabeth PAC has launched a parent letter campaign
  • The PAC at Tupper Secondary, where 1/3 of teachers have received potential layoff notices, has written the Education Minister and local MLAs expressing concern on behalf of the families of over 1,000 students there. Read the letter
  • Lord Roberts PAC started a parent letter campaign after learning that their school will lose inner city status and funding supports, due to the budget crisis.
  • General Gordon PAC:

Please email us with details of your PAC’s advocacy efforts so that we can share them here.

Links:

  • Click here and here to visit Facebook pages for two student groups fighting school cuts
  • Click here to visit the website of “Vancouver Parents for Public Education”
  • Click here to visit the website of the “Stop School Cuts Vancouver!” Coalition
  • Click here to visit Vancouver DPAC’s webpage
  • Click here to learn about the Vancouver Board of Education’s 2010-11 Budget Process
  • Click here to visit the Vancouver Board of Education’s Advocacy page