Child poverty deserves attention all year long

Richard Hoover, Vancouver Sun

Re: The truth about child poverty, Column

I was touched and puzzled by Daphne Bramham’s article about the thousands of children living in poverty in our province, and the scarce resources available in our schools here in the best place on Earth to live.

Almost every day for the past many weeks there has been a story … about the deplorable conditions, and outpouring of donations, for our public schools and for the young boys and girls who arrive for classes ill-clothed and ill-fed.

Teachers, school administrators, businesses and members of the community by the thousands have responded to these stories and given freely of their time and money to help make things better.

Clearly the public is not happy with the cutbacks over the last decade and the state of the government’s support for public schools, for teachers, and for children living in poverty in B.C.

So why is it only at this time of year that we recognize the problem, and why do we keep electing politicians who refuse to do anything about it?