VANCOUVER – Carole James’ spending plans in Education would effectively result in an unfunded downloading of costs on school boards and service reductions for kids, said Mike de Jong, BC Liberal candidate for Abbotsford-Mt. Lehman.
“Carole James claims to know what’s best for school boards and our kids, but from the start her plan gets a failing grade,” said de Jong. “The NDP’s short-sighted, nine-month plan would end up having a devastating impact on our school system.”
The NDP is promising to spend $83 million this year only to hire 1,500 new educators and 90 principals. However, the NDP platform only provides an additional $39 million to the existing Education ministry budget. This effectively means a $44 million shortfall for school boards this year alone. Furthermore, they provide absolutely no indication of how they would fund these cost pressures in future years.
“The only way that school boards can make up this funding shortfall would be to cut programs that students depend on, plain and simple.” said de Jong. “It is the height of hypocrisy for Carole James to attack others for ‘downloading’ when her plan would do precisely that.”
De Jong also pointed out that the NDP is planning to override local school board decision-making.
“It’s appalling that as a former school trustee Carole James would think that the NDP knows better that locally elected school boards how best to allocate their valuable resources for students,” said de Jong.
He further noted that Carole James still has no explanation for how the NDP would address outstanding wage issues with the province’s teachers currently in negotiations. The BC Liberal government had set aside funds in the forecast allowance and contingencies fund to address these issues in future years, but the NDP has already committed to significantly reducing those budgets under their plan.
“In addition to giving the green light to more politics in the classroom, the NDP wants to allow strikes in schools and at the same time they have provided no funding for a teachers’ contract,” said de Jong. “It’s a recipe for chaos and conflict in our schools.”
