The funding system for B.C.'s public schools is broken and needs to be fixed, says School District 43's board chair, who will be offering a shopping list of suggestions to the BC School Trustees Association next week.
Melissa Hyndes, who has been appointed to a BCSTA committee to review proposals for reforming education funding in B.C., says the current funding system is inequitable and unfair, and needs a complete overhaul.
"What there needs to be is greater equity across the board," said the Port Moody trustee, who said districts have been labouring under a poorly constructed funding system for nearly a decade.
The original idea of the fiscal framework established in 2002 was to simplify the funding model and allocate grants for each student instead of funding specific districts or program costs. But when districts started experiencing declining enrolment, costs didn't diminish and struggling districts got extra funding protection.
Hyndes said SD43 didn't get any of this money yet it has experienced higher costs. What's more, she said, there are now more districts receiving extra grants for declining enrolment and other factors when it would make more sense to figure out what it costs to operate B.C. schools and fund accordingly, without all the add-on grants.
Hyndes cited as one example the rural factor grants some districts - such as the urban Greater Victoria, which receives $1 million - get. "How does that work?" she asked.
The board doesn't begrudge smaller districts getting extra funding to meet certain needs, Hyndes noted, but all school districts should be funded adequately.
There are now six different grants available to struggling districts and School District 43 doesn't get any of them. And it continues to be one of the lowest funded districts even though it's one of the largest, is geographically and demographically diverse, and also manages to be one of the highest achieving.
SD43 is calling for a review of the system and made several recommendations in its brief to the BCSTA, which will be vetted along with proposals from other districts and sent to Education Minister George Abbott for review.
In its report, the SD43 board called for a review of the public education mandate, an analysis of what it costs to fund the mandate and sufficient money to do the job. The board also recommends the province examine what it should cost to deliver education programs using technology, provide money to cover negotiated labour settlements and allow districts to use money for carbon offsets - about $300,000 in SD43 alone - to reduce their carbon footprint rather than funding private sector projects.
Hyndes said she would also like to know how the province would divvy up the $165 million it has proposed for special education to settle a dispute with teachers over class composition. "Let's identify what the needs are and the mandate, and let's fund it accordingly," Hyndes said.
The proposed Class Organization Fund has been criticized by the BC Teachers' Federation for being inadequate and the teachers' union is seeking clarification from the B.C. Supreme Court on the ruling that struck down Bills 27 and 28, which regulate class size and composition.
In the meantime, the BCTF has stopped meeting with the province on the issue, which the court has ruled needs to be settled by next spring.
