School Trustees Confirm B.C. Liberals Failing To Fully Fund All-Day Kindergarten, Education

VICTORIA — School trustees passed a motion this weekend confirming that the government is not providing the funding necessary to offer all-day kindergarten next year, say New Democrats.

“School trustees from across the province met this weekend in Vancouver, and they made it clear that there are not enough dollars in the system to run current programs, let alone new or expanded initiatives,” said New Democrat education critic Robin Austin. “There are significant costs associated with developing spaces for all-day kindergarten, and those are not being funded by the B.C. Liberal government.”

Deputy education critic Diane Thorne noted that New Democrats support the implementation of all-day kindergarten and are disappointed that it looks like the B.C. Liberal government is set to break their promise to bring in fully-funded all-day kindergarten for a second time.

“New Democrats are one-hundred per cent behind all-day kindergarten. It’s a shame that the B.C. Liberals continue to play games with the education of our children instead of giving districts the resources they need,” said Thorne.

Austin noted that many older schools need to be renovated with things like lower sinks and toilets before they can accommodate younger students. The Victoria school district pegged the average cost of re-equipping a classroom so it is appropriate for kindergarten students at $16,000. According to Austin, that’s money that simply doesn’t exist in most school districts.

“When the B.C. Liberals eliminated facilities grants they eliminated any chance that school districts could implement all-day kindergarten without impacting other classrooms,” said Austin. “Most districts simply don’t have the resources to make all-day kindergarten happen.”

Thorne noted that in addition to the elimination of the $110 million facilities grant, massive costs have been downloaded on to districts including the cost of dealing with H1N1, the additional tax burden caused by the HST, increases in MSP premiums, and costs that will be incurred because of the government’s decision to cut PAC grants in half this year.

Earlier this month school trustees joined with parents, teachers and school support staff to write a joint letter on behalf of all school districts in the province outlining unfunded cost pressures on districts and protesting the cancellation of the annual facilities grant.

“School districts simply have no room in their budgets to meet more unfunded costs from this government,” said Thorne. “There is no money in this year’s budget to implement all day kindergarten, despite the amount of prep work that needs to be done.”

Carole James and the New Democrats have been holding the B.C. Liberals accountable for breaking their word on the HST, and for backtracking on their election promises to protect health care, education, and other vital services.