The BC Government should remember that behind each of these students, there are two parents concerned, angry and confused by the budget shortfalls being encountered by school boards across the province.
With the vote on the Vancouver School Board (VSB) proposed $18.12 million in budget cuts for fiscal 2010-11, the heat is rising on a provincial government led by a rookie Minister being thrown to the wolves by Premier Gordon Campbell.
Yesterday, over 500 parents and kids packed the John Oliver high school gym to rant against a provincial government that so far doesn’t have the guts to be honest with the amount of funding AND EXPENSES that are being passed on to school board across BC.
Speaking about the politics of the situation for a second, I interpret the shifting of the messaging from the Minister as a sign that the BC Liberals are beginning to realize that it is them rather than the VSB, or any individual school board for that matter, that is going to bare the brunt of the fallout.
First she was spouting off about how BC schools were getting the most funding per capita in history. Then it was about how there was waste and mismangement within the administration of the VSB. Now the latest line is about how student enrollment is down significantly, and that is why “we need to do things differently.“ Really? But I thought that there was more funding than ever…
The fact that North Vancouver, Richmond and other districts are facing the same kinds of crunches mean that trying to attack one particular school board – the one that has been the most publicly vocal against the cuts – doesn’t hold much weight anymore.
Just as Housing Minister Rich Coleman finally came around to the fact that funding homeless shelters is the right thing to do (both politically and based on principles), I have a feeling that the province might just cave on an issue that is poised to galvanize parents across the province…and not in a good way for a government on the verge of padding the coffers with billions of revenues from the dreaded HST.
Then again, these guys seem to have all of their collective heads up Gordon Campbell’s prostate these days, and that is a pretty dark place to be in these days.
This next week is going to be interesting to see what the power of the people can do to sway government. I think that Bill Vanderzalm might have begun a little to late to find reprieve from the the “harmony” that the government is about to introduce. But when it comes to parents, I think the province is going to have to bend or face a wrath like they haven’t seen since coming to office.
