The Strange Story of Vancouver’s Subsidy for One Small Private School

How do politicians like Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim and the ABC councillors lose their way so quickly?

Sim promised to cut spending on “non-core services” and scrutinize every budget item. The city would stick to basics.

But The Tyee’s Katie Hyslop revealed that Sim and ABC last year extended a lease that provides a long-term $32-million gift from Vancouver taxpayers to a pricey private school.

Education is not a core service for the city. And $32 million is big money, given that Sim pressed libraries to raise $500 a month each to help fund their operations.

The support is for the Fraser Academy, a private school that charges $38,000 to $44,000 to parents desperate for help for children dealing with dyslexia. The city owns the Kitsilano property.

The deal actually goes back to 1996. In 2021, Mayor Kennedy Stewart and council agreed to extend it for nine years at $1 a year.

In 2023, Sim and the ABC-controlled council extended the lease to 99 years. All in a subsidy worth $32 million. It’s the only private school that city taxpayers subsidize.

The justification is that the Fraser Academy, with just 260 students, will become a centre of excellence for the education of students with dyslexia.

I don’t know enough to judge if that’s realistic. An ignorance I share with Sim and Green Party Coun. Pete Fry, both enthusiastic defenders of the city’s gift of taxpayers’ money.*

But that didn’t stop councillors — in this council and the previous one — from voting to subsidize the private school without any evidence that the money would bring benefits. (Sim went further, lobbying the province to provide unprecedented capital funding to the school.)

Dyslexia is an enormous problems for students, parents and schools, affecting about 10 per cent of people. Current government supports are wholly inadequate and parents are left desperate to find help for their children, recognizing that early supports can change their lives.

But why is Vancouver city council — with no responsibility for education and no expertise — deciding to focus on one learning challenge and one small private school?

And what evidence supports the claim that one small school in Vancouver is going to improve education for students in Prince George or Fort St. John?

Good questions, especially for ABC voters, who presumably expected a government that honoured promises to focus on the problems of the city.

One answer might be that the people asking for support for the school are part of the ABC crowd. Real estate developer Gary Pooni is a supporter of the Fraser Academy, as is David Sacks, CEO of Imasco Minerals Inc., Hyslop reported. Both were ABC donors.

Pooni, Sacks and Sim are birds of a feather, who can count on answered calls, meetings and, ultimately, money.

Not like Cathy McMillan, co-founder of the grassroots, parent-run organization Dyslexia BC.

McMillan told Hyslop it’s troubling the city is funding one expensive private school to do what the public school system is failing to do — assess and support children with dyslexia.

And she challenged the usefulness of the funding.

“I’m not sure how much homework [the city] has done in terms of talking to other dyslexia experts. I think they’ve just been hearing from the private school itself about how great they are.”

McMillan told Hyslop she asked in November for a meeting with Vancouver councillors to present Dyslexia BC’s report on the experience of students with dyslexia. It was scheduled for Feb. 13, and then cancelled. Try again, the grassroots organization was told.

If the private school was a sensible decision, you would expect everyone involved to be eager to talk about it.

Nope.

Hyslop requested an interview with Fraser Academy Association CEO Neil Johnston, who initially agreed but then cancelled on the day it was to take place.

They asked for an interview with Sim. He said no.

Coun. Pete Fry, to his credit, spoke to Hyslop. He said he supported the private school because it hoped to become “a centre of excellence for language-based learning differences.”

Laudable, but not credible.

And Fry didn’t know if the city was funding any dyslexia programs in public schools.

Do schools and students with dyslexia need more support? Of course.

Parents are either waiting years or spending thousands just to have their children assessed. The lack of supports in the public school system means those who can afford to will hire tutors or enrol in private schools — like Fraser Academy.

Those who can’t watch helplessly as their children fall behind and suffer.

This month’s B.C. budget provided $30 million over three years to fund assessments and supports. That makes sense.

Vancouver politicians betraying their promises and handing out millions to one private school serving fewer than 300 students doesn’t.

* Story updated on March 12 at 12:19 p.m. to include the term of the lease. The article was edited to make it clear that the subsidy to Fraser Academy was begun in 1996 and extended under Mayor Kennedy Stewart.

* Story updated on March 13 at 9:01 a.m. to reflect that Vancouver Coun. Pete Fry is a member of the municipal Green Party. He was misidentified as being a member of the ABC party.