Centre for Civic Governance

Vancouver School Board Asks for Independant Review to Settle Funding Dispute

Vancouver school board chair, Patti Bacchus is calling for an independant review of the financial status of the Vancouver School Board. A recent report by the comptroller general claims that budget shortfalls for the district are caused by fiscal mismangement, but the school board maintains shortfalls are due to chronic underfunding.

Read story in the Province.

BC's Education Brownout

Today's opinion piece in the Tyee explains why school board budgets are not keeping up with costs. To view The Centre For Civic Governance's detailed look at school board budgeting, click here.

British Columbians Back School Trustees in Fight for More Funding

According to a recent Angus Reid poll, nearly 80% of British Columbians support increased funding for public schools. Read Vancouver Sun article here.

School Boards Around B.C. Plead Poverty

The Vancouver School Board is not the only school district having difficulty meeting budget shortfalls. Across the Province, school boards are contemplating school closures, layoffs and reductions in classroom support for students. Read article in The Province here.

Vancouver Board to Lay Off Dozens of Staff, Close School, Drop 10 Days

The Vancouver School board is expecting it will have to lay off dozens of staff, close a school and reduce the school year by 10 days in order to create a balanced budget. Read Globe and Mail article here.

For a more thorough understanding of school board budgeting in BC, download:

When More is Less: Education Funding in BC, a report by the Centre For Civic Governance.

Vancouver Challenges Margaret MacDiarmid's Facts

BC Education Minister, Margaret MacDiarmid has argued that while School boards complain of deficits they often wind up with surpluses in the end. But, as Vancouver School Board Chair Patti Bacchus has made clear, the surplus disappears when all expenses are paid out. Read Janet Steffenhagen's blog here.

 

BC School Districts Face Stagnant Operating Grants

School districts were examining the B.C. government's funding promises after the education ministry released information this week showing that more than half of them would receive the same operating grant this year as last year, despite having to pay for salary increases and expanded kindergarten.

No additional cash for 33 of 60 BC school districts

More than half of B.C. school districts will receive the same operating grant in 2010-11 as they did this year, according to preliminary figures released today by the Education Ministry. That means no additional money for full-day kindergarten, teacher salary hikes and increases in MSP premiums, pension contributions, etc. etc. in 33 of 60 districts.

But, as the ministry points out, it also means no loss of money despite fewer students.

In Tight Times, Campbell Gov't Chooses to Help Big Banks

Inept budgeters axed $100 million yearly tax revenue from fat financial institutions. And it gets worse.

It used to be said of the New Democrats (when they were in government during the 1990s), that, such was their lack of business and financial expertise, they couldn't run a lemonade stand.

Sadly, with Gordon Campbell and his BC Liberals, British Columbia today has a government whose fiscal acumen is so abysmal, so evidently lacking, that they appear incapable of operating any business enterprise of any size.

BC School Closures: A Cure Worse Than the Disease

The number shut by BC's Liberals is 176 and climbing, but here's why the savings will likely prove a mirage.

Forty-four of B.C.'s 60 school districts have closed 176 schools since 2002, and over 50 more closures are certain or threatened over the next couple of years. But demographic projections suggest that closures are a short-term solution that will create a long-term problem.