Education cuts leaving many concerned for local classroom loads

Education once again is on the front burner in the Northwest, with concerns being expressed that recent and potential future cut backs could have serious impacts on local educators and students.

As we discovered on Monday here on the blog, Education Minister Shirley Bond is speaking out about the need for School districts with declining enrollment to take strong measures to make the best with the budgets provided.

While not coming out and advocating directly for school closures, she made it rather clear that the best use of space is needed, considered by some to be a suggestion that consolidation in declining areas is a goal and perhaps may soon be a ministry mandate.

Wednesday's Daily News expanded on the education theme, with comments from local union reps about recent changes to secondary school operating grants. Changes which could see larger classrooms in Prince Rupert's High schools, and layoffs by mid year. The funding reductions and swirling conversations over cutbacks and closures, are seen unbelievable by some, with the school year now under way.

There certainly seems to be a need for a more transparent process in the way all these cutbacks and suggestions of further changes are being handled. As it is it seems that while the Ministry of Education and the teachers union have their positions well in hand, the parents and students seem to have been left on the sidelines.

Once again waiting for the government and the union to perhaps ask for their input, after all they will be the ones impacted the most by changes and deteriorating relations on the education front.

Close the book on education cuts, says union
By Kris Schumacher
The Daily News
Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Pages one and three

Part-time high school students and staff in Prince Rupert will be negatively affected by recent provincial cuts to the secondary school operating grants, according to Prince Rupert District Teacher's Union President Joanna Larson.

In an e-mail to British Columbia's school district secretary treasurers dated Oct. 18, Minister of Education Shirley Bond announced a cut to grants for 2007-2008 secondary students in Grades 10, 11, and 12 who have less than a full course load.

"A change in funding at this time of the year is unbelievable. We already have 81 secondary classes with more than three students with special needs," said Larson.

"With the possible loss of staff how many more classes will become oversized? How much further does this government plan to cut back services to students, and still have them still have them succeed?"

Prior to the Oct. 18 e-mail, students enrolled in less than eight courses received .5 of the base grant plus .125 of the base grant for every course they took. With this announcement, students who do not take a full course load will only receive .125 for each course taken, meaning they will lose as much as $4,000 per student.

New Democrat education critic David Cubberly urged Minister Bond to rescind the cuts, and on Oct. 24 in the legislature posed the question why a change in school funding was made without notice or consultation.

"Monkeying with funding for the school year in progress disrupts plans, jeopardizes programs, demoralizes educators and may victimize at-risk students taking fewer than eight courses," he said.

Minister Bond responded by pointing out that the education budget is higher than it has ever been in the province.

Bond said that plans made in March to send $4.34 billion in operating funds to school districts will not change.

However, Cubberly was not satisfied that the minister had answered the question as to why the cut was made during a current school year.

"Cutting the base grant for every student and replacing it with a per-course grant will cut funding to schools and districts facing declining enrollment," said Cubberly.

"The minister must be aware that many kids don't take eight courses in high school in a school year for all kinds of reasons.

"For schools with a lot of kids, this is a funding cut, pure and simple."

Just how much this announcement will impact Prince Rupert School District remains to be seen, since there was funding protection previously put in place that would protect local school staff for the rest of the year.

However, Larson says if this previous protection does not cover these recent cuts, School District 52 secondary schools could be facing mid-year layoffs and further overcrowding of high school classrooms.

"[Minister Bond] said every committed dollar is going into education, but these were committed dollars that they are now pulling the plug on retroactively in the middle of the year," said Larson.

"That's a huge problem because it affects the staffing and programs already in place for these students. It further destabilizes public education in the province of B.C."

Adding further concern for the future of School District 52, Minister Bond has also said districts with declining enrollment such as Prince Rupert should brace for school closures in the near future. Student enrollment in Prince Rupert has decreased by 24 per cent since the 2000-01 school year, and across the province of B.C. enrollment has declined by 7,000 students this year.

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"I don't want to speculate on closures, but I can tell you the loss of 7,000 students will have an impact over time. Our primary consideration is making sure resources go into classrooms and not into half-empty building," said Bond. "Those school districts cannot expect to operate with the same configuration."

With files from Canwest