Responding to Vancouver School Board budget shortfall

Media statement: March 31, 2016
Andrew Weaver responds to Vancouver School Board budget shortfall
For Immediate Release

Victoria B.C. – Today Andrew Weaver, Leader of the B.C. Green Party and MLA for Oak Bay-Gordon Head, commented on the Vancouver School Board’s budgetary shortfall and the challenges facing public schools around the province.

Yesterday Premier Clark told the CBC’s Audrey McKinnon that the province can help BC’s public school system by growing the economy and attracting more people to live here.

“Fundamentally the BC Liberal’s have it backwards. A quality education is not the luxury of a strong economy. A quality public education system is what builds a strong economy”, Weaver noted. “The Premier has all these hypothetical conditions about a growing economy that she thinks must be met before her government will adequately fund public schools. This is short-sighted and puts our province’s economic future in jeopardy.”

“This budgetary problem has its roots in the Liberal’s 2002 shift from block funding to per-student funding, of which we have the second lowest rate in the country. The change was brought in when Christy Clark was the Minister of Education from 2001 to 2004.”

“The situation in Vancouver is further compounded by the BC Liberals’ irresponsible economic policies that have made affordability a huge issue in this city. People cannot afford to raise families here. The government cannot wait for other people to move in and solve the problem –  they need to step up at support the school board.”

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Media Contact
Mat Wright – Press Secretary Andrew Weaver MLA
1 250 216 3382
mat.wright@leg.bc.ca