Login / RegisterVancouver parents, students protest school closures at Gordon Campbell’s office
Mallika Granby’s school isn’t facing closure, so unlike other kids in Vancouver, she doesn’t have to worry about this prospect.
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But for the Grade 5 student at Lord Tennyson elementary school, it is important that every child in the city should be able to enjoy the benefits of public education.
That’s the message the 10-year-old girl delivered in a speech at a rally today (November 12) outside the constituency office of outgoing B.C. premier Gordon Campbell, wherein participants urged the province to fully fund the cost of education so that no schools will be closed.
“At my school we are able to fundraise for smart boards, sports stuff, school trips,” Granby declared. “It’s totally awesome that our school is able to do it. But what about the other schools in Vancouver? Every kid in Vancouver should have a joyful education. And this is why public education is important.”
The Vancouver school board is set to decide in December whether or not to close five schools. These are Carleton, Queen Alexandra, and Macdonald elementary schools, and the McBride and Champlain Heights annexes.
The rally was attended by well over 200 people, many of whom were students and parents from the schools facing closure.
At the rally, Vision Vancouver school trustee Mike Lombardi told the Straight that except for one individual, the school board has consistently heard from community members during the course of the public consultations on the fate of the schools that learning institutions should be preserved.
Scott Macdonald, a Grade 5 teacher at Carleton, was at the rally, and emphasized the importance of solidarity in the fight to keep schools open.
“It’s important that we stick together,” Macdonald told the Straight in a short interview.
In an emotional speech at the rally, Tracy Johnson pointed out that public schools have been helpful to single mothers like herself. The First Nations mom pledged that she will continue fighting against school closures.
Public-education advocate Helesia Luke also spoke at the rally. In her speech, Luke noted that the share of public education in the province’s budget has eroded from 25 percent to 15 percent over the course of the last 10 years.
Vancouver-Mount Pleasant NDP MLA Jenny Kwan was among the elected municipal and provincial politicians who attended the rally.
Speaking with reporters, Kwan challenged recently appointed Education Minister George Abbott to talk to parents, and listen to their concerns about school closures.
And please do not let the political parties make this a political fooball for their election or reelection purposes. Great school are in the interest of all of us and closing schools is regressive and hurts children.
To all, please consider putting a solutions program together before the school board folds and closing schools.
James Green
Former School Teacher ( 20years)
Former School Trustee
Parent
A main contributor to this phenomenon is the yearly publishing in the Province newspaper by the Fraser Institute of the results of the Foundation Skills Assessment exams administered to Grades 4, 7, and 10 students. Schools are listed, not alphabetically, but according to the averaged scores of their students. Parents misinterpret these results as meaning that schools whose students' averaged scores were lower must be inferior schools. It has been proven that these scores reflect nothing more than the overall socioeconomic level of the families who send their kids to any particular school. Parents, of course, cannot be expected to understand the reasons why the schools on the east side every year rank lower than west side schools. The high numbers of ESL students alone can cause such a disparity, and add into the mix the many students from families living in poverty or in crisis, and it would be a miracle if the results of these tests were any different. This is not authentic assessment, and the true nature of the excellent public schools on the east side of Vancouver is being misrepresented.
Anyone who says it is proven is only stating what one theorist or group of theorists have believe to be the truth.
It is not important the west to east argument. What is important is do the schools have the best resources, class sizes, teachers, and so on.
And it is important that each school is doing the best it can for its students.
Education is not a competition and the Fraser Ins findings are irrelevant short sighted and merely enhance fear and loathing on the road to improving our schools. As to the importance of high marks based education,ask, Bill Gates, Enstein, Jim Pattison and the 30 to 40 percent of students who get As k to 12 and who fail in university. A s and test scores are not the major determiners of success in today's world and never have been indicators of success in the real world,
You are absolutely right!
The issue is not budgetary, it is idealogical
The situation is quite simple. The conservative right (BC Liberals & Fed. Conservatives) throughout North America are pushing for the privatization of everything, including schools and it takes time to achieve this. So the Fraser institute has implemented their own, disproven, scoring system for our schools. To quote a renowned cognitive scientist and linguist who has deconstructed their attempts to destroy our adequate school system:
The above quote is from George Lakoff's "Don't Think of an Elephant" which explains how the conservative right frames issues and how Progressives must stand up to these bullies and call it like it is. Because even bullies like the BC Liberals don't like being shamed.
G.Lakoff has published dozens of books, 200+ YouTubes, column in Huffington Post, as well as right here on TheTyee going back to 2005.
Jim Van Rassel
Coquitlam BC
BC colleges and universities are into educating foreign students its where the money is and it was what the Liberals promised to rid government of all that wastefull spending when you can bring educated immigrants there is no need to waste tax payers dollars on education.
This "We Are World" nonsense must stop.... with all this immigration you need to split the education system into 3 departments.
Basic Students - can speak, read .. and comprehend english
ESL Students - must pass tests proving they can join the basic students
Special Needs Students - keep them away from distracting people who have the ability to learn at a normal rate.
Bring back the little bus.
First Nations ...each student fits somewhere in one of those categories. Don't like it? .. then home school.
Wake up to the real world ... not everybody wins... school should be a grading system for life... not a overfunded opportunity to fail on your own terms.