Vancouver Trustees Advocacy

The Vision and COPE school trustees in Vancouver have been doing unprecedented amounts of advocacy, working with their trustee colleagues in other school districts and with parents and the unions here in Vancouver trying to get the message out to whomever will listen about the situation facing Vancouver schools. And while the Premier, the Minister of Education, and their BC Liberal MLA colleagues keep repeating "education funding is the highest ever" / "funding is at an all time high for public education" / "we're spending record amounts on education," the truth is that these increases have not kept pace with inflation, have not accounted for increased unfunded costs that have been downloaded to school districts, and have not accounted for the real costs associated with maintaining services in a school district.  

In Vancouver alone, these downloaded costs will result in a minimum shortfall of $18.12  million and are not in areas where boards have the discretion to spend less. The education of all of our students - typical, ESL, special needs, Aboriginal, inner city - will be profoundly impacted by any further cuts to Vancouver's already stretched district budget.

VSTA members are encouraged to make their concerns known by writing MLAs  and are encouraged to get PACs to do the same. 

* VSB Trustees Advocacy Work and sample letter to MLAs
* BC MLAs mail and email address
* Be sure to copy the letter to Premier Campbell, the Minister of Education, the Minister of Finance, and Leader of the Opposition