B.C. Education Minister under siege over school cuts
By Jack Keating, The Province
April 21, 2010

Protestors gather at MLA Margaret MacDiarmid's office on West Broadway during a Vancouver rally against proposed cuts to education funding in B.C. April 20, 2010.

Worried parents and children were among close to 1,000 people urging Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid Tuesday to properly fund public schools in Vancouver.

The crowd marched from Broadway and Granville to the minister’s constituency office in the 1200-block West Broadway to protest the provincial government’s lack of funding that has the Vancouver School Board facing “drastic” cuts ….

Jane Webster, who was with her three elementary schoolchildren, was carrying a sign that said, “This voter has lost confidence in Minister MacDiarmid and Premier [Gordon] Campbell.”

When asked why, Webster said: “Because they’re not properly funding the education system.”

That was the view of other protesters, who loudly cheered as parent and rally organizer Matthew Quetton urged the minister to “restore funding cut from the education budget this year.”

Quetton, who has two children, including a special-needs child attending General Gordon School, said that parents are putting “the blame pretty squarely on the shoulders of the provincial government.”

“This year, the province imposed a number of additional costs on the school boards in the way of increased teachers salaries, MSP premiums, benefits packages as well as carbon offset credits and other costs that the school boards have no control over, effectively cutting the money that was available for other services,” he said. “Parents are demanding that funding be restored.”….

There was also a march by parents and students of inner-city schools from Grandview Elementary School to a public consultation meeting with school trustees Tuesday night at Mount Pleasant Elementary….

School board across B.C. are saying their expenses are increasing at a higher rate than their provincial funding.

SFU education Prof. Paul Shaker said the protests could have an impact on the Campbell government.

“I think that the government does respond to public pressure,” he said….