Having attended the first rehearsal of the West Coast Symphony for the coming season last night, I could hear the fear and anger coming from my fellow musicians regarding the cuts to the arts (even the orchestra, which is a volunteer organization filled with professional and amateur players, isn’t receiving it’s usual bingo funds, representing a huge shortfall for such an entity).
British Columbians are facing increased medical service premiums, and health authorities have been told by the Health Minister to cut their budgets, ensuring that surgeries, seniors’ programs and services for the mentally ill are being scaled back to facilitate the government’s wishes.
But out of all the cuts that are being made by the BC government as part of the province’s largest ever deficit, those to school boards across the province are absolutely shameful.
A gutless provincial government cuts and cripples school boards across the province, obscuring responsibility by making school board trustees do their dirty work
With a week to go before kids from across the province were to return to school, school boards were left to scramble with the announcement that the annual facilities grant program worth $110 million was going to be eliminated ($10.6 million of which was allotted for the Vancouver School Board). And what, pray tell, is that $110 million used to pay for each year.
Nothing too important – just fire testing, mechanical and electrical upgrades, roof replacements, site improvements, exterior building envelope inspections (earthquake protection), graffiti removal, asbestos removal, washroom maintenance, indoor air quality, and this year, preparing schools against the H1N1 virus.
There are three important considerations to factor in when contemplating this cut. First, the BC School Trustees Association already identified the annual facilities grant to be inadequate to keep schools in good, safe and up-to-date condition.
Secondly, the surpluses that the government is claiming the school boards have in their coffers has already been committed to work performed over the summer to get schools ready for the start of the year.
Third, these are expenses that have to do with the safety of children, and so upon having to make the decision between this kind of essential quality control and something like a special needs class or a music or sports program, the losing side of the equation becomes painfully obvious in terms of spending priorities.
To add insult to injury, the Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid has just shut the door on allowing school boards to borrow money or go into deficit for the sake of our children.
When asked about whether the cuts could lead to closing schools or trimming staff, she said that it was up to the individual school boards to decide. On the bright side, she did offer this ray of hope:
“It’s hard for everybody. It’s much more important for us to work together.”
Budget cuts that go straight to the heart of kids’ safety, no access to funds from other sources, and an inability to weather the fact that “the fiscal cupboard is bare” through the possibility of deficits (like the other two levels of government) – that’s working together for kids with the BC Government.
Vancouver Board of Education trustees call on provincial government to fully fund public education
Vancouver, B.C. – In support of its position that the education of our children and youth is the best investment of public funds, the Vancouver Board of Education passed a series of resolutions Wednesday night calling on the provincial government to:
*fully fund increased costs to school districts;
*restore grants that have been cancelled or reduced;
*fund the costs of H1N1 prevention;
*fund increased employee MSP premium increases;
*grant 75 percent Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) rebates to school districts;
*alter legislation to allow boards to carry deficits;
and fully fund all-day Kindergarten implementation.
The resolutions were passed at an emergency board meeting called to give trustees an opportunity to update stakeholders and community members on the current budget situation and consider possible responses.
A staff report outlining the district’s three-year budget projection showed the district will require almost $15 million in additional funding for the 2010/11 school year to compensate for salary and benefit increases, inflation, purchase of carbon offsets, potential impact of HST (if no rebates provided) and the MSP rate increase, assuming the facilities grant funding is reinstated. If it is not, the shortfall would rise to more than $25 million. The report also notes that almost $7 million of the current year’s operating fund came from one-time transfers of monies from a previous surplus and the district’s reserve fund. The district does not expect those funds to be available for the 2010/11 school year.
“We received some short-term relief yesterday when the Minister advised us that she is approving our request to access our shared $5 million restricted capital reserve fund and $2.5 million savings we realized on Combined Seismic Mitigation projects,” said Board Chair Patti Bacchus. “We made a special request to access those funds to help us grapple with the Ministry of Education’s abrupt cancellation of our $10.6 million Annual Facilities Grant (AFG) funding.
The district was hit yesterday by the news that gaming grants to Parent Advisory Councils will be cut in half, which means a funding reduction of more than $500,000 to Vancouver schools.
“In addition to the cancellation of the facilities funding, we’ve also been advised that the ministry is taking back $400,000 in what they refer to as ‘holdback’ funding that we received in June,” said Board Vice Chair Jane Bouey. “We allocated some of that funding to provide all-day Kindergarten to some of our inner-city schools, but now the money is gone.”
“It’s critical that government provides at the very minimum funding to cover the increased costs of school districts,” said Trustee Sharon Gregson, who chairs the board’s Finance Committee. “We submitted a Needs Budget in the spring calling on the government to restore funding so we could return to 2001/02 service levels, and to do that, we would have needed a minimum of $40-million increase for this school year, and we know costs will be higher next year.”
Background documents:http://www.vsb.bc.ca/districtinfo/districtpublication/newsmedia/20090909.htm