Rob Fleming, provincial NDP Education Critic, blasted local MLA Linda Larson and the provincial Liberal government for not offering nearly enough financial assistance to School Districts across the province during last week’s $25 million funding announcement. Just over $118,000 of that funding was directed to School District 53, but board chair Marieze Tarr immediately responded that the money would not be enough to have the board reconsider its position to close Osoyoos Secondary School. (Richard McGuire Photo).
The residents of Osoyoos – and people all across British Columbia – are far too smart to look at the provincial government’s $25-million funding announcement last week to the province’s education system as “anything but a cynical, last-ditch attempt to try and save face,” said NDP Education Critic Rob Fleming.
Fleming, who has been highly critical of the provincial Liberal government and Boundary-Similkameen MLA Linda Larson for being unwilling to wade into the controversy surrounding the pending closure of Osoyoos Secondary School (OSS), said offering $118,000 to School District 53 more than a month after trustees voted to close OSS is political opportunism at its absolute worst.
“The government is playing cynical games by giving the appearance of trying to do something,” said Fleming, the MLA for Victoria/Swan Lake. “But I don’t think anyone in Osoyoos and anyone across this province is going to be fooled by this.”
The Christy Clark government has finally realized with the next provincial election less than a year away, that millions of B.C. residents are livid with what he calls “the chronic underfunding” of public education in this province and the closing of dozens of schools has become an important election issue.
“I believe the people of this province are sick and tired of the photo ops and the continued broken promises of Christy Clark and her government,” he said. “It’s the same old, worn-out tune where they start spending money only because they know election day is coming.
“They have totally ignored the public education system in this province for several years and now they’re trying at this very late date to try and save face … and it simply won’t work.”
The only reason the Liberals have announced any funding is because of the steady and growing political pressure being put on the government by upset B.C. residents, including those in Osoyoos, who have voiced their discontent over the past five months, said Fleming.
“Without the political pressure this government is facing by residents across the province and in Osoyoos in the wake of schools closing and chronic underfunding, this government would not be funding one extra penny,” he said.
For Larson to visit Osoyoos and offer a “paltry” $118,000 in funding weeks after School District 53 trustees had voted to close OSS due to what they called constant and continual funding pressures is almost funny, said Fleming.
“I can’t imagine how the B.C. Liberals could have managed this entire situation more badly,” he said. “This government and the local MLA sat on the sidelines for months … and the MLA simply refused to show up and be counted when the community of Osoyoos needed her to stand up when the most divisive issue in that town in years was going on.
“To come in at this very late moment and offer what amounts to a pittance and try and convince the local residents that it would make any difference at all is incredible.”
To raise the collective hopes of the citizens of Osoyoos and then announce less than $120,000 in funding – and then state she expects those same trustees to get back to work and do everything in their power to keep OSS open – is beyond comprehension, said Fleming.
“The optics of her coming in at this late stage of the game and offering up an amount of money she knows will not make an iota of a difference is not good,” he said. “I think what she did was unfairly raise expectations within the community that the school might remain open.
“She raised those expectations … then she didn’t deliver. I really don’t think she did herself any favours. I have talked to several local residents I have been dealing with since the school closure issue began five months ago and they are all so disappointed.”
After hearing that school board chair Marieze Tarr has commented that the $118,000 in funding from the province won’t alter the trustees’ majority vote to close OSS, Fleming said it came as no surprise at all.
The only decent news is there’s still almost one month until OSS is scheduled to close its doors for good, said Fleming.
“I still have hope that the school board can work something out that is in the best interests of the people of Osoyoos … and that is to keep the school open,” he said.
A one-year reprieve is all that’s needed as he’s confident the NDP government will form the new government following next May’s provincial election and one of the first steps they would take is to restore adequate funding to the provincial public education system.
“The only solution is a new government,” he said. “We would properly upgrade the chronic underfunding of kindergarten to Grade 12 education by Christy Clark and her government.”
The Liberals continue to state they are pouring more money than ever into the public education system, but the reality is a large chunk of funding goes to private education, said Fleming.
Any funding increases the Ministry of Education does provide to the public system has gone almost exclusively to providing pay and benefit increases to teachers, he said.
The necessary funding needed to pay for increases to such things as building maintenance, MSP premiums, increases to insurance and other downloaded costs put squarely on the back of local school districts hasn’t increased in years, he said.
KEITH LACEY
Osoyoos Times
