September is here again, and I have been working closely with our Education Critic, Norm Macdonald, to examine the issue of education in our rural communities.
Like me, Norm has experience as a teacher, which gives him the background to look beyond the numbers put forward by the Minister of Education to see the real impacts of the Liberal government’s education policies. Also, as MLA for Columbia Revelstoke, and chair of the New Democrat rural caucus, Norm understands the challenges faced by rural school districts.
In choosing an MLA from a rural area as our education critic, NDP leader Carole James has shown that she too is deeply committed to protecting rural schools and to ensuring our access to a school system that meets the needs of our children. During her five years as President of the BC School Trustees Association, she worked hard to support public education throughout the province.
Since coming to power in 2001, the Campbell Liberals have consistently under-funded our public school system. More than 177 schools have been closed, and some districts have been forced to move to a four-day school week for purely budgetary reasons. Last year, over 10,000 classes in British Columbia did not meet the government’s own minimum standards for class size and composition. Special education supports have been cut.
Here in our region, we’ve mourned school closures even as more than 40 per cent of our classrooms contain more than 3 special needs students. Funding cuts have meant less support staff to make sure these struggling learners don’t get lost in the crowd.
We’ve also lost teacher-librarians in Prince Rupert. Literacy is the key to life long learning, and teacher-librarians are our strongest allies in the fight to teach our children a love of reading. A government that wanted strong readers and willing learners would ensure we have more teacher-librarians, not less.
Several years ago parents, teachers and support workers demanded a promise from the government for better learning conditions in the classroom. As a result, the Campbell Liberals brought in Bill 33 which promised proper class composition and class size standards, but without funding, those changes have never been implemented.
As anyone knows, the true measure of someone’s priorities comes not from what they say, but from what they do. If the Campbell Liberal government cared about our children this province wouldn’t have had the highest child poverty rate in the country 5 years in a row. Campbell’s record on child poverty is indefensible, and worse, it is a legacy that will echo for years to come, in the lives of those children affected. It’s time to put our children first.
A strong public education system is one of the wisest investments a society can make, that is why Carole James, Norm Macdonald, and the whole New Democrat team are committed to fully funding our public education system. After seven years of slashed budgets and broken dreams, the Campbell Liberal government has proven they don’t share this commitment.