The Parent Advocacy Network is relieved to see a budget that emphasizes childcare and early childhood education and that doesn't explicitly cut education funding. However, we are disappointed that K–12 education funding seems to be only sufficient to maintain the status quo. There are some savings that the boards will be able to keep and spend at their discretion, such as savings from the Next Generation Network implementation and pension over-contributions, but these do not amount to enough to reverse the losses of the last several years. Districts may see some relief through the 50% MSP cut, but how their portion of the new employers’ health tax will be funded is yet to be seen.
This means that boards don’t have much, if any, new/increased funding to restore programs and services (such as fine arts programs, gifted programs, and custodial services) that they have cut in previous years due to the need to balance budgets. It also means that children with special needs will continue to go without the level of Education Assistant time and other services that they deserve in order to fully access the public education system, which is their right, and long waitlists for assessments will continue to delay diagnoses for children who are struggling to keep up. On the capital side, the playground fund is much appreciated, but it is important to recognize that parents fundraise for much more than just playgrounds: PAN did a survey in 2016 that showed that parents are fundraising for necessities such as fine arts programming, books, and sex education. The budget introduced last week will not reduce schools' need to rely on parents to raise supplemental funds for these items, and it does not address the inequities that result from this situation. In terms of seismic replacement schools, new schools, and getting children out of portables, we are glad to hear that the government is committed to speeding up its work in these areas; we look forward to not just announcements, but shovels in the ground and children in safe schools. (download pdf)
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Today PAN submitted the following to the K–12 Public Education Funding Model Review Committee.
(download pdf which includes footnotes) Thank you for the opportunity to provide input on the education funding model review. The Parent Advocacy Network for Public Education is a grassroots group of parents who have children in public schools in the Vancouver and Victoria areas; we also have connections with parents across the province. We are writing to highlight issues that we would like to see resolved in whatever the new model may be, as well as questions that will be important for the funding review committee to consider. It is essential to note that, ultimately, the most important factors are the adequacy, predictability, and stability of funding coming from the province. Without these, any funding model will be doomed to fail. The current funding model puts the onus on districts to decide which programs and schools to fund in their yearly requirement to balance their budgets. Districts have attempted to protect what they consider “core” classroom programs by reducing or cutting altogether items such as education assistant hours, maintenance and custodial services, and music, fine arts, and gifted programs. This has led to a situation where districts vary in the services and programs offered. Even within districts, schools vary in programming depending on PAC fundraising for items now considered “optional.” Our survey of PAC fundraising demonstrated that PACs subsidize much more than the clichéd playground construction. PAC fundraising pays for music instruction, art instruction, sexual education, classroom supplies, books, art materials, PE equipment, and technology, to name just a few. Furthermore, as the range of programming offered by schools is reduced, parents and families have to spend increasing amounts of money on items like art instruction, music instruction, and supplies for their individual children. This is in addition to contributing to the funds raised by their PACs. The parents of children who need support but are not considered “highest need”—and therefore do not receive enough or any resource teacher support—spend money on tutoring in basic literacy, reading, and math. High school students increasingly require tutoring because they are taking online courses due to reduced course offerings in school. The inequities that exist in this situation are stark and alarming. No child’s quality of education should depend on their parents’ ability to fundraise or to outsource educational support. Whether children receive a well-rounded education, which includes exposure to the arts and music, should not depend on which programs the district decides to cut that year. The effects of budget cuts and increasing inequities have been felt even more severely by students with special needs, as advocacy groups such as BCEdAccess and Inclusion BC have demonstrated. The absence of specialized arts teachers and dedicated rooms for arts education has been institutionalized in the Area Standards policy, which sets out how new schools will be constructed. The Area Standards policy requires elementary schools to be built without dedicated rooms for the arts and with very little space outside of enrolling classrooms. Dedicated funding for arts education at the elementary level and a change to the Area Standards policy to allow art rooms to be built are necessary in order to reverse the disappearance of fine arts from BC’s elementary schools. We would like to see the Ministry re-centralize the task of deciding what is necessary and included in a quality public education, fund those programs adequately, and fund them transparently. This would include designating specific funding for specific programs and costs—such as arts instruction, educational assistant time, custodial services, technology—so that money intended for one use cannot be spent for another purpose by the district. There may also be opportunities to look to other ministries to fund costs that the Ministry of Education currently bears. Many schools perform services that may fall under the purviews of the ministries of Health, Children and Families, and Mental Health and Addictions. By looking for opportunities to use schools as hubs for “wraparound services,” communities will be better served and costs could be borne across ministries. In short, a successful funding review will include the questions: What is included in a quality public education? How do we make sure educational services are delivered equitably? and What is the role of the school in the community? Sincerely, The Parent Advocacy Network George Heyman, MLA asked us two questions after our presentation to the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services on Monday, September 19, 2016. We would really appreciate your help answering them.
Thursday May 19 parents will wear red to protest the current state of education funding in BC5/18/2016 On Thursday, May 19, we encourage all citizens across BC to join us in wearing RED to mark the fact that, although the BC budget is in the black, public education is in the red. Joint PAN/FACE Media Statement (PDF)PARENTS WEAR RED TO PROTEST STATE OF FUNDING FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION
Parent Advocacy Network and Families Against Cuts to Education Respond to BC Budget 2016 VANCOUVER -- Thursday, May 19, marks the end of the current Legislative session and the passing of the BC Liberal government’s balanced budget. Sadly, while BC may be in the black, public education is surely in the red. As part of a joint FACE-PAN campaign — #bcedinred — FACE has been tracking school district budget shortfalls. As of Wednesday, May 18, half of the 60 School Boards had reported operating budget shortfalls with a combined total of $84.17 million. The BC public education system has seen a long history of adverse policies and chronic structural underfunding which has crippled the public system forcing school boards to cut programming, support staff, resource workers, counselors, specialist teachers, librarians, maintenance, resources and supplies while increasing class sizes and closing schools. “Every year, structural underfunding forces students, schools and communities across BC to compete for increasingly scarce dollars. It forces school boards to make impossible choices over which vital program to save or to cut, and it forces PACs to fundraise inordinate amounts of money to compensate for these losses, creating inequality between schools,” said Jennifer Stewart, parent and co-founder of FACE. BC school boards are required by law to balance their budgets; they must find ways to cover the shortfalls. This means programs, services, and school closures are on the chopping block throughout the 60 school districts. The collateral damage to-date is dire and continues to expand: Osoyoos has seen its only high school closed; Quesnel has closed three schools and still need to make cuts; parents in Courtenay fought successfully to save Ecole Puntledge Park, but the district must still make cuts to cover its shortfall; school buses are being cut in Maple Ridge; Vancouver Trustees refused to pass a budget containing $24 million in cuts; and Saanich has also balked at making cuts. “Over the last decade, parents have seen a relentless depletion of services within our schools, resulting in the loss of teachers, counselors, specialists, learning supports, librarians, arts programs, and basic educational resources” said Andrea Sinclair, parent and co-founder of PAN. Parents know these cuts cannot be dismissed as “local decisions”; they are the result of decisions made at the provincial level. The government decided to increase public school operational funding by less than 1% in Budget 2016 — this does not even cover inflation. It also doesn’t cover spending decisions made at the provincial level, such as construction of the Next Generation Network. These costs are downloaded onto the Boards, who must find a way to cover them without any additional funding. The 2016/17 BC budget indicates that we live in a province of relative prosperity. Unfortunately, public education is not being funded accordingly, much to the detriment of our future society. PAN and FACE believe that a high-quality public education system is the cornerstone of a democratic society. We cannot condone a budget that is balanced on the backs of children in public schools. On Thursday, May 19, we encourage all citizens across BC to join us in wearing RED to mark the fact that, although the BC budget is in the black, public education is in the red. -30- Supporting Resources #BCEDINRED - http://www.panvancouver.ca/bcedinred.html https://facebc.wordpress.com/2016/04/10/bcedinred/ http://www.panvancouver.ca https://facebc.wordpress.com/ PAN Vancouver@PAN_Vancouver @FACE_BC www.facebook.com/PANVancouver www.facebook.com/FACEVancouver [email protected] About the Parent Advocacy Network The Parent Advocacy Network for Public Education (PAN), formed in 2015, is a grassroots collective of parents and community members who want to address the chronic underfunding and cuts to education services in Vancouver and across British Columbia. Our mission is to create a strong network of parents across schools and to support one another in advocacy. Our network enables us to share information and experiences, and to stand together in protecting public education. About Families Against Cuts to Education Parents and citizens who care about public education came together in 2015 to form Families Against Cuts to Education (FACE). We believe public education needs to be a priority again, that public education is more important than politics, that a strong public education system benefits us all, and that all children must be able to benefit from high quality public education. Media Contacts For PAN - Andrea Sinclair, 604-240-9834, [email protected] For FACE - Jennifer Stewart, 604-790-9929, [email protected] © 2016 Parent Advocacy Network for Public Education. All rights reserved. |
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