The new kid in school: Abbott readies for education challenges
JUSTINE HUNTER
Globe and Mail
Oct. 29, 2010

… On Wednesday night, Premier Gordon Campbell promised to give young learners a boost. Here are the changes, and the costs.

Expand the StrongStart BC network: Over the next five years, the province will add an additional 100 StrongStart BC centres, providing support to preschoolers and their caregivers. Operating cost: $3-million a year.

Early Childhood Learning Assessment: Starting in September, 2011, every student entering kindergarten will be offered an early childhood learning assessment so that teachers can fashion individual education plans for the first critical years of grade school. Cost: $1.6-million in the first year.

The three Rs: Roughly 20 per cent of children completing Grade 4 in B.C. are not reading, writing or doing math at a Grade 4 level. The Premier vowed that within five years, every child completing Grade 4 will be performing at grade level. Cost: $700,000 in the first year and $8.9-million in subsequent years.