HARRISON – Shed no tears for school trustees who got what they deserved
THE WAILING has begun in the aftermath of the B.C. government’s decision to fire the Vancouver School Board.
The rhetoric about the unfairness of it all, and how it’s an attack on democracy, we wonder what took so long.
The VSB has been engaged in a political fight with the Liberal government for years now, and has not only refused to make decisions it needed to take for the efficient operation of its school district, but has knowingly broken the law by not submitting a balanced budget as required by law.
It wasn’t a lot of fun at the time, but other districts, like the Kamloops Thompson, did make the hard decisions consolidating schools and closing others in the face of declining enrolment.
Painful and disruptive as it was, the decisions were necessary, and at the end of the day, student education did not suffer.
It would be patently unfair to have one part of the province endure the necessary hardship, and offer concessions to another.
Beyond that failing, labour relations within the VSB had hit the floor, with at one point virtually all senior administrators calling in sick.
Long story short, there can’t be separate rules for the other school districts and something different for Vancouver. Just because trustees are democratically elected doesn’t mean they can ignore the regulations they are supposed to be governed by.
This entire crisis is one that’s been manufactured by school trustees who are more interested in politics than in the welfare of the students they pretend to represent.
So shed no tears for Vancouver trustees who manufactured this crisis, and got exactly what they deserved.
Listen to Jim Harrison’s editorials weekdays on Radio NL, and to the Jim Harrison Show at 9:08 a.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Contact him at jharrison@radionl.com.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
Harrison: student education has absolutely suffered because of the extreme underfunding of the public education system. This is not a few cuts to keep things going, this is repeated lack of funding as student enrollment, class sizes and students with special requirements increase rapidly, year over year. Educate yourself.
Kudos to the VSB for having the guts to stand up to the lying BC Libs. We only wish other school districts had the jam to submit needs budgets rather than to cut and slash in their districts. Clark’s government has consistently underfunded public education while increasing the percentage of funding going to private education in this province- and why not? Clark’s child doesn’t attend public school!