I suppose students, parents, and educators throughout British Columbia should be appreciative of our Minister of Education, Margaret MacDiarmid, taking time to "set the record straight" regarding the current state of educational funding.
If only things were that simple. A 32 per cent funding increase per student (from $6,660 to $8,808) between 2000-01 and 2010-11 sounds impressive until it's compared to the $10,730 Ontario plans to spend on each of its students during the 2010-2011 school year. Or when it's viewed in context of the 14 per cent decline in education funding relative to the provincial GDP since 2001.
Based on Mrs. MacDiarmid's line of reasoning, one could draw the conclusion that the 43 and 54 per cent salary increases doled out to senior government bureaucrats and the premier respectively during the same time period have somehow created an "excellent" governing body with "excellent" public policy, fully meeting the needs of all B.C. citizens.
Simply put, nothing could be further from the truth. While Mrs. MacDiarmid trots out the same tired rhetoric, we have endured yet another school start-up that has seen classes exceeding the legislated limits of special needs students; students with identified special needs sharing their minimal support time with other needy, but non-designated students; support and resource professionals with overwhelming case loads; schools competing for limited resources and the dwindling number of students; and inequities in funding caused by school choice and open boundary policies.
This is not "an excellent education system;" it is, however, a group of very determined, hard-working, but increasingly frustrated and dismayed educators, parents, and community members doing the best we can to help our children learn and succeed under very challenging circumstances.
Tom Makowsky
Prince George
