The provincial political rumour mill is churning with speculation Premier Campbell will announce the eradication of the school board system during his televised address this evening, replacing them with appointed regional education authorities. The Vancouver Observer, Public Eye Online, and trustees from several boards are among those reporting, blogging, and tweeting on the possibility this will be the government’s solution to some very public fights with several of the province’s school boards.

“There’s been speculation about that for some time that they wanted to move towards the regional health board model and some are saying tonight would be the night for the premier could potentially do that. I’ve not heard anybody being able to confirm it,” Mike Lombardi, a Vancouver School Board (VSB) trustee, told The Tyee.

“There’s been all kinds of signals: they’ve been underfunding boards, they’ve been taking away more and more of our powers, they’ve taken on fights with school boards, and I think it’s a matter of reading what’s out there and we do know the premier personally doesn’t have much use for school boards.”

This year has been marked by a number of public disputes between the ministry of education and the province’s school boards over funding, the ugliest and most visible being between the ministry and the VSB over a $18.1 million budget shortfall that forced the board to make $16 million in cuts. But while the end of fighting between the government and the boards may seem like an upside to this move, Lombardi stresses that a loss of democracy and public input in education will be the downside.

“Parents and others have the opportunity to come and talk to (boards) directly…you get a chance to see who you elected and hold them accountable. I think if we move to a regional education authority model, you’ll have decisions being made behind closed doors, by faceless appointed partisans who will basically be there to do one thing and that’s implement the government’s agenda,” he says.

The Tyee contacted the ministry of education for comment, but the call was not returned by publishing time.