All the talk about the federal election over the past five weeks, along with never-ending news and speculation about U.S. politics, has obscured a very serious political matter right here in Surrey—massive cuts to the education system.
The breadth of those cuts, due to an unexplained $16 million shortfall in funding from the Province, is just starting to sink in.
Effects will occur in the heart of the school system, in its classrooms. There will be fewer education assistants, and high school students will be able to choose hybrid learning for some courses.
In September, the school district will begin a pilot hybrid learning program for students in Grades 10, 11, and 12. It appears the main reason it is being brought forward is to reduce the number of students in classrooms.
Black Press Media's Sobia Moman reports that hybrid learning, used during the COVID-19 shutdown of schools, is coming back to reduce pressure on facilities.
Surrey currently has 315 portable classrooms. The funding squeeze prevents the district from obtaining more of them, yet more students show up each year.
New schools and additions are under construction, but that process is a lengthy one. It is made longer by provincial delays in approving funding for new facilities—a perennial problem in Surrey which goes back decades.
Parents however, are wary of the hybrid learning proposal. They fear that secondary students will fall behind as they wrap up their 13 years of education. The Grades 10, 11 and 12 years are crucial ones, as students prepare for the next phase of their lives.
“The hybrid model brings serious and lasting drawbacks that deserve far more scrutiny,” parent Sally Huang told school trustees at a recent meeting. “Students have struggled. Many of them found it’s hard to engage online.”
Trustee Garry Thind, whose son will be in Grade 10 next year, isn’t happy either.
“Our hands are tied. We have to cut busing, we have to cut programs, very essential programs in the district. Those are not easy choices for us to make.”
He said concerned parents and others must put pressure on local MLAs - six of whom are opposition Conservatives, and four of whom are part of the NDP government.
Another cut which will be seen in dozens of classrooms in September is a reduction in the number of education assistants. The school district will not fill the vacated positions of those who retire or leave the district’s employ. This is being protested by the Canadian Union of Public Employees, local 728, which represents non-teaching district employees.
Union president Tammy Baldwin said “nobody saw this coming. We are taking away from our most vulnerable students.”
Up to 50 positions will be reduced by attrition, Trustee Terry Allen said at the board’s April 9 meeting. Parents know only too well what kind of impact this will have. In affected classrooms, all students will have more challenges learning, under more difficult conditions.
Such a magnitude of cuts is impossible for the NDP government to justify. Thus far, no local MLA has explained the necessity of the $16 million budget shortfall to one of the most essential services that the government provides: education.
Thind is right. MLAs need to be deluged with complaints.
Frank Bucholtz writes twice monthly on political issues for Black Press Media publications.
