Sunday, February 17, 2008

Green Party seeks educational investment in First Nations students

Elizabeth May, the leader of the Green Party is calling on Ottawa to invest more resources into the education of First Nations youth, providing for more funding to those schools on Canadian reserves, which have been getting by for too long on reduced budgets.

As part of their story on First Nations education, the Daily News combined May’s comments with details of how School District 52 is working with First Nations, in order to try to close the funding gap and increase the graduation rate of area First Nation students.

The details of the story were in Thursday’s Daily News.

Invest now in quality Aboriginal education, say Greens
By Kris Schumacher
The Daily News
Thursday, February 14, 2008

Pages one and three

The Green Party of Canada is calling on the government to better address shortcomings that exist in First Nations education in the next budget.

"Forty per cent of First Nations people live on reserves with growing youth populations and these young people are being disadvantaged by paltry education budgets," said Elizabeth May, Green Party leader.

"It is worrying that the government has taken no action to increase the budget for services and assure the quality of education received."

The Assembly of First Nations conducted education funding analysis and discovered that band schools receive an average of $2,000 less than provincial schools for each student living on-reserve.

Also troublesome is the 28 year education gap identified by the Auditor General in 2004. It was estimated that it will take 28 years for graduation rates of Aboriginal students to reach those of non-Aboriginal students.

As it stands, close to 70 per cent of First Nations students in Canada do not graduate from high school, and the Auditor General has warned the chasm will continue to grow.

“Naturally, an increasing population will result in a greater demand for services. It isn’t rocket science,” said Lorraine Rekmans, Green party Aboriginal affairs critic.

“If we don’t spend the money on education, we are shortchanging not only the youth but Canada as well. First Nations youth have potential to contribute significantly more to Canada, but we must first invest in their success. It’s past time for this government to address Aboriginal youth in the federal budget.”

Debbie Leighton-Stephens, District 52 principal of First Nations Education says that while funding for community schools is less than provincial schools, it has improved in recent years.
“I know over many years it was quite a bit lower than the funding that comes to public schools, and it’s always been a concern for Aboriginal leaders and educators in our province,” she said.

“In our district, the graduation rate last year was only 49 per cent for Aboriginal students, but for non Aboriginal students we’re higher than the provincial average, between 85 and 90 per cent.

However, Leighton-Stephens and other educators know what a long way School District 52 has come in raising graduation rates for First Nations students in the last ten years, from when Aboriginal graduation rates were as low as 20 and 25 per cent. That said, she would like to see more funding allocated for First Nations education in districts such as Prince Rupert, where class sizes and diversity of student needs is a major issue for educators.

“I know it’s an issue province-wide as well, because it is very hard for teachers to meet all of the needs that a high percentage of our students have,
said Leighton-Stephens.

“(More funding) would allow us to develop more programs locally to really engage our learners, not just to go away for post-secondary, but to give our young people more opportunities locally.
See tomorrow’s edition of the Daily News for further coverage on First Nations education and the problems being faced in our communities.

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