Editor:
Why do we have an elected school board if they only act as apologists for B.C.’s Ministry of Education?
It sounds good that they are looking for consensus, but who is looking out for Surrey?
Education budgets have not kept up to inflation, yet our school board is silent or only offers up a whimper. When faced with cuts and rollbacks to public education, we only hear about opposition from the Vancouver Board of Education.
Our Surrey school trustees should be advocates for public schools, not representatives of the provincial government. When class-size limits were first negotiated in Surrey, district-wide averages were above those limits. We have lost much of our adult continuing education programs. We are increasingly locked out of school facilities. We have growing numbers of students who face years in portables.
We should have twice the number of post-secondary seats than we do. Students pay more tuition than corporations pay tax. We need school trustees to stand up for Surrey students and their parents.
If trustees have lost their willingness to fight to improve and enhance public education, they should step down. Grandfather rights for our incumbent trustees are not good enough for Surrey. The trustees’ call for political peace is very self-serving and undemocratic.
The public should be forgiven when they believe politicians are all the same – only interested in their own re-election.
Pat O’Connor, Surrey