Dear Editor:
Re: Burnaby School District eyes new markets for international program, Burnaby NOW online.
This is surely a new speed record. Burnaby Citizens' Association trustees take up the Burnaby First Coalitions's idea to raise revenue to fill district treasurer Greg Frank's forecast $4.5-million deficit and avoid staff cuts next spring. And the election was just four days ago!
I thank the BCA for unambiguously endorsing this idea. It is a rare flash of intelligence amid outrageous (now debunked) rumours about BFC campaign tactics and misrepresentation of BFC candidate views.
As long as the BCA lack ideas of their own, they are welcome to advance ours. However, in their rush to embrace proper economics, they appear to forget who just returned them to office: taxpaying parents. BCA trustees also ought to take up this part of the BFC plan and talk to all local parents before rushing abroad.
The district is a public institution. It is supposed to serve all taxpayers - including parents of those 7,000 local children not now enrolled in a Burnaby school. These families deserve more than lip-service; they pay school taxes too.
At a per-capita allotment of $7,000 per child, there are potentially $49 million annual budget dollars here (7,000 children X $7,000 per child.) Talking to these parents about changes in policy, procedure and programming that might attract their children to a district school does not even require paying travel expenses. Why then is the priority to travel abroad to seek students?
Is the travel itself the reason? Or has this more to do with BCA unwillingness to abandon their increasingly bankrupt ideology about what constitutes "public" education in a globalized and competitive marketplace?
I have just spent six months talking to parents at doorsteps, forums and all-candidate meetings. The consensus view is that trustees should focus on determining what services local parents want from their tax dollars. If current trustees look first to serving all 30,000 resident Burnaby school children, they can fill partially empty buildings, improve operating economics, and essentially head off staffing cuts for the foreseeable future.
And that should happen before seeking revenue outside Canada.
The top reasons I hear parents telling me that they use to choose schools include: dedicated teachers, strong academic quality, student encouragement and safety. They also look to schools that enable their sons and daughters to become fully engaged in academics and extracurricular activities, helping them to discover their abilities and excel in post-secondary career choices.
If the BCA trustees are prepared to acknowledge the truth about the BFC plan for targeting revenue growth - including reaching out for additional local public school tax dollars, then perhaps they are also prepared to talk to Burnaby parents whose children are not enrolled in public schools.
First focus on serving all the parents who cover your paycheques and elect you to office.
Then, if there is still room left to fill in a Burnaby public school, go abroad looking for more students.
Heather Leung, Burnaby
