British Columbia school trustees are "strongly dismayed" at the thought that school districts may be merged in a bid to save money for the provincial government.
In a news release this afternoon, the B.C. School Trustees Association quoted its president, Connie Denesiuk:
"All boards of education strive to provide the most effective and efficient public education to their communities. We have been down this road before; the 1996 amalgamations resulted in major disruptions, no significant cost savings were achieved, and the overall quality of public education in the affected communities did not improve.
"Any consideration of amalgamations or shared services must clearly demonstrate advantages to students. Many boards of education across British Columbia are currently sharing services and purchasing with other boards and municipalities on a voluntary basis."
In a phone interview this evening, Denesiuk -- on her way to the budget lockup in Victoria Tuesday morning -- told The Tyee that she had been part of a merger in 1996. It had worked fairly well, she said, because the districts were small and the new amalgamated district could still be crossed in 30 minutes.
But the merger had resulted in no savings, she said. Sometimes, amalgamations actually increased costs, and some districts still have problems 13 years later.
Denesiuk mentioned geographical challenges of northern districts, like getting up The Hill from the Bella Coola Valley to the Chilcotin. "Sometimes it's cheaper to fly to Vancouver than to fly next door," she said.
"The bottom line is that amalgamation has no economic benefits."
Crawford Kilian is a contributing editor of The Tyee.
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Name
2 years ago
Where's the evidence?
The BC Liberals have been hinting threats about school board amalgamation for years but have yet to produce a single study or a shred of evidence that it would actually provide net savings and/or better serve the public interest.
Every time local school trustees get too uppity about standing up to BC Liberal budget cuts on behalf of our students, they roll out the big stick of usurping local autonomy by eliminating or amalgamating local boards to beat them back down. It's nothing but a spiteful, bullying tactic to remind everyone who's the big boss.
Last week, the Libs cut $110 million from the education budget mid-year, throwing School Boards into crisis. This time the trustees decided not to take it lying down and now just days later the Minister is suddenly threatening amalgamation!
Bullies!
They also deliberately deceived voters about their plans for amalgamation. In an address to the closed-door gathering of BC Liberal candidates and insiders to kick off the spring election in April, Gordon Campbell cited school board amalgamation as a key BC Liberal education policy goal. He also made it clear to those assembled that he would not tolerate any leaks about this and other plans that were discussed.
Sure enough, there was no mention of amalgamation in the BC Libs' election platform, and no one breathed a word to trustees or the public until the election was over (although some attendees were less discreet - I knew about it within days of Campbell's speech, as did others).
This was a deliberate deception. If this idea had any merit, they would not have had to hide it like this from voters until it was too late.
freebear
2 years ago
Only livid eh!
What about that stabbing pain in their backs?
Skywalker
2 years ago
It is all about control.
Back when the NDP did the last very modest School District Amalgamation the liberals had been saying in policy statements that there should be 40 School Districts in BC. If they are dusting off that old policy there will be some very serious protests.. They've done something similar in health care with their hospital authorities and we are starting to hear complaints now about how unaccountable and unresponsive these authorities are.
It is all about control for the liberals.