B.C. needs to improve its aim: Children's representative says help for vulnerable kids needs to be targeted better
The Province
By Sam Cooper
September 17, 2010

"It's the best of times and the worst of times in B.C."

That's the problem seen by Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond -- B.C.'s representative for children and youth since 2006 -- looking at the province's persistent child poverty.

It is perhaps the most significant challenge facing kids in B.C., she told The Province, as no other Canadian province has such a "tremendous" gap between rich and poor. The upshot is that those who can afford it have access to perhaps the best child supports in the world, leaving the have-not families farther behind. The inequality doesn't stem from a lack of financial resources or social programs in B.C., but a lack of targeted programs, according to Turpel-Lafond.

"B. C. ironically has a bigger problem for inequality than provinces that have a lot less in choices for families, and it's because of how we've organized our social-serving systems," Turpel-Lafond says. "We don't have the resources in place to work with those children that are most vulnerable across our systems, and do it in an effective, coordinated way, with really good reporting and accountability [on outcomes.]"

For children aged six to 12 especially, Turpel-Lafond says if schools had flexible resources to dedicate to the students that enter kindergarten and are identified as vulnerable, many of the children could bounce back to standard levels by Grade 4.

Similarly, entire schools are underperformers year after year, but they don't get targeted funding to improve outcomes, Turpel-Lafond says. That's why the debate about whether to assess schools on performance should end, she says, and educators should embrace performance barometers as indicators to draw increases in funding.

Turpel-Lafond says that a huge problem for B.C. compared with other provinces is public school enrolment is declining, while private-school enrolment rises.

That is a significant concern, "because it is going to re-entrench the inequalities," she said. "If you take vulnerable kids, pull them out of public school and give them more supports in the private schools, those kids end up doing well."

But the result is increasing depletion of resources and declining opportunities in the public system, Turpel-Lafond says. The same trend is seen in outside school activities, especially sports, she adds….

Turpel-Lafond says outcomes for vulnerable children could be "improved dramatically" if B.C. had a poverty-reduction plan, bringing together funding sources from education, health, housing and social support and applying targeted, innovative pilot programs, such as year-round school for children who need to catch up.

Turpel-Lafond says response to her policy recommendations in the past four years has been a "mixed bag," but she was pleased that B.C. schools heeded her call to monitor the performance of all children from foster homes, because they typically have low graduation rates. But now, funds must be increased to make sure they get extra support, she says.

Overall, B.C.'s gap of inequality puts the province on an unsustainable path, with heavy financial costs due to be paid in the future, unless significant reforms to the social system are made, Turpel-Lafond says.

"We have some serious problems in B.C., and we will be a society of very entrenched inequality. And unequal societies get worse over time."