Education funding has to be one of the most head-scratching areas of government spending.
Every year, the government trumpets how it's increased funding to our local school boards. And every year, school boards across the province - including the Sea to Sky School District - bemoan how they must struggle to balance their books without cutting teachers and programs and closing school doors.
So where is all the money going?
First off, while the total funds each school district receives generally stay the same or increase modestly, the costs of keeping aging facilities open and paying unionized staff their provincially-mandated salary increases are always on the rise.
"Maintaining" education funding in real terms would mean annual increases to funding well beyond what the provincial government has been handing out.
Add in special announcements of increased service like full-day kindergarten - without giving school districts any additional funds to pay for them - and it leaves school trustees scrambling every year to try to do the same very important job of educating our kids with less money.
Which begs the question: why do we have elected school trustees anyway?
This isn't a slight at the well-intentioned, talented and community-minded people who serve on our school boards; it's a question about the system, and who it benefits.
Once upon a time, the rationale for elected trustees was clear - they actually set local school tax rates and determined the revenue their districts would receive in order to operate. Anyone with their hand in the public's pocket needs to face the voters.
But that system was eliminated by the Bennett government in the 1980s in favour of equal per-student funding of school districts.
Since then, school trustees have had the responsibility to decide how to spend the funds they get from the government, but no power to change the amount of those funds.
Indeed, if they fail to produce a balanced budget by refusing to make the necessary cuts, they run the risk of being dismissed by the province, as nearly happened in Vancouver earlier this year.
In effect, school trustees become little more than elected bureaucrats.
The only usefulness they serve as elected officials is not to the public, nor to students or teachers, but to the provincial government. They insulate the government from the consequences of their actions.
They allow the premier and the Minister of Education to say: "We didn't decide to close your child's school, your school board did. It wasn't us that laid off your school's librarian, talk to your trustees. You voted for them, after all."
What then would happen if every school board trustee in B.C. stepped down tomorrow? And what would they do if the nomination period came and went and nobody stepped forward to replace them?
It's scary to contemplate, but one thing is certain: it would force the government to take charge - and take direct responsibility for the consequences of their actions.
-Tim Shoults
