Province's education funding all smoke and mirrors
Times Colonist (Victoria)
Jun 30, 2009
By: Jack Knox

That's it, kids, first week of holidays. … when you do go back, be prepared for some crowded classrooms, not to mention fewer field trips and shaggier lawns. B.C.'s school districts are hacking like crazy to make up for budget shortfalls.

This is not the line we get from the provincial government, which made a big deal in February about health and education being the only areas to see funding rise even as the economy sank.

That was technically true, but still specious, …

Per-pupil funding did indeed increase by 2 1/2 per cent, but that's a red herring in times of falling enrolment. In real terms, the Greater Victoria district will see its funding go up by less than one per cent this year, while Saanich's will be unchanged. That's not enough to keep pace with rising costs, including those negotiated by the government itself: A contract that gave teachers a 16 per cent raise over five years doesn't run out until 2011.

Since the province funds districts on a per-student basis, the pressure is greatest in places with declining numbers. …

Such districts are still stuck with fixed expenses that don't move with student numbers: It costs as much to run a bus carrying 40 kids as 50. Schools with 300 students take as much to heat as those with 400.

The result? Saanich was forced to cut $3.6 million worth of expenses next year, five per cent of its total budget. (Remember that unlike the provincial government, school districts are not allowed to run deficits.)

….It now looks as though 50 teachers under contract in the Saanich district this past year will lose their jobs. …. Community groups will pay more to use the schools….

It's not just Saanich, of course. The story is being repeated around the province. Even in the Sooke district, one of just six in B.C. with stable or growing enrolment, it's nibble, nibble, nibble: Less attention for special-needs kids, desks don't get cleaned as often.

So, no, despite the provincial government's crowing about record spending, school boards don't have enough to keep up to rising costs. But what else do we expect, given the state of the economy? The finance minister's relatively rosy pre-election estimate of a $495-million 2009-10 budget deficit will probably be dwarfed once the real numbers are in.

Nobody without an Inukshuk logo can expect to squeeze more money out of the government.

The thing is, the Liberals would have more credibility, and earn more respect, if they just dropped the façade, were honest about the obvious and acknowledged that funding hasn't kept pace with inflation, that schools don't have enough in their wallets to keep standards from slipping.

The school districts might as well forget clamouring for more money when there isn't any, and the government should stop pretending that the system is fully funded when it isn't.