The Vancouver Scrum

On the move!

Agh! You’re still here? My new site and weblog, ianking.ca is now up and running; new posts are building up over there, never to be mirrored here. Go! What are you waiting for? All the stuff worth keeping has been migrated over to the new server, and I don’t anticipate making any more posts here.

Bloggers and webmasters: Update your links! Simply replace vancouverscrum.blogspot.com with www.ianking.ca in your blogrolls or bookmarks to point to the new site. Old posts will remain on this server for as long as the people at Blogger/Google allow them to remain; unfortunately, I’m not going to bother to come up with any way of converting permalinks on this blog to their corresponding posts on the new site. Yes, I plead laziness. I also realize the irony of switching away from Blogger just it starts to add features that the demanding blog nerds insist upon.

Thanks for reading and linking, and see you over at ianking.ca!

—Ian King, December 13, 2004

Monday, February 03, 2003

 
B.C. Education Minister Christy Clark has put out the word before this month's provincial budget: Don't expect any new funds for school districts. This might not be too much of a surprise, given that the BC government is rolling in a sea of red ink. What is sleazy, however, is that this same government legislated a salary increase for BC teachers, effectively forcing and additional $100 million in costs on the province's 75 school boards, without kicking in an extra penny to fund the last two years of increased costs.

Can you say "passing the buck?"

Can you say "Mike Harris tactics?"

Something's got to give, and it's going to mean larger class sizes and school closures. The school board in my former home of Prince George, which covers schools from PG as far north as Mackenzie and as far east as Valemount, is considering closing 8 schools this year after closing 7 last year. Vancouver faces a shortfall of $21 million in the upcoming year. If the school boards don't come in on budget, they will be fired by the provincial government, something that the combative Christy Clark is probably looking forward to doing.

If Ms. Clark wanted to hold the line on education costs, she should have ensured that the government froze teachers' wages. Why not? She already removed their option of striking, so what were they to do in protest? Move to Ontario? Instead, she has forced the school boards into an untenable situation in order to cover her ass. (You may insert snide comments about the behaviour and tactics of Paul Martin supporters here.)
posted at 10:40 — new improved comments — 0 so far
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