BC's 'Liberal' government continues to cut education funding for our public schools. They had plenty of money to build and upgrade roads for the Olympics, plenty for a new roof on BC Place Stadium, plenty for tax cuts when their wealthy supporters want them but now that they're in the red we're seeing who is going to pay the bills. Cuts to school funding and cuts to medical services don't effect the 'Liberals' core group of backers the rich. The rich send their children to private schools if they choose to. The rich fly off to expensive/exclusive private US clinics when they choose to. We're told daily we live in the greatest place on earth by the mainstream media but a closer look reveals that they too are owned and operated by the rich for the rich.
In 1977 BC's Social Credit Party began subsidizing families who thought the public schools weren't good enough (or religious enough) to suit their kids. It bought a lot of votes, and it still does. All told, B.C. taxpayers spent just over $200 million in 2008-2009 to support 319 private schools, plus another $41 million to private "distributed learning" schools and $25.4 million in special education grants to qualifying students in Group 1 and Group 2 schools. The BCTF says funding to private schools has risen by 34 per cent while public-school funding has risen by just 13 per cent.
Certainly this funding subsidy for private schools must be eliminated. Certainly the rich must be made to pay their fair share of taxes. Certainly the wasteful spending on mega-projects must be suspended until BC's schools and medical programs are fully funded. Certainly BC's 'Liberals' aren't liberal, they are just the old Social Credit Party wearing a thin coat of paint.
School cuts continue as deadline looms - The cuts to school programs in B.C. continue as districts vote on measures to balance their books in time to meet the April 30 deadline.
BC's Education Brownout - The province refuses to meet the true cost of sustaining our public schools, as a close analysis shows. We all will pay a price.
