That's it, kids, first week of holidays. Pull off your shoes and run barefoot in the grass. Don't put them on again until you return to school in September.
But when you do go back, be prepared for some crowded classrooms, not to mention fewer field trips and shaggier lawns. sa国际传媒's school districts are hacking like crazy to make up for budget shortfalls.
This is not the line we get from the provincial government, which made a big deal in February about health and education being the only areas to see funding rise even as the economy sank.
That was technically true, but still specious, like having your little brother hold his finger half an inch from your face and chant "I'm not touching you." A couple of choruses of that, you just want to jam his head in a bucket.
Per-pupil funding did indeed increase by 21/2 per cent, but that's a red herring in times of falling enrolment. In real terms, the Greater Victoria district will see its funding go up by less than one per cent this year, while Saanich's will be unchanged. That's not enough to keep pace with rising costs, including those negotiated by the government itself: A contract that gave teachers a 16 per cent raise over five years doesn't run out until 2011.
Since the province funds districts on a per-student basis, the pressure is greatest in places with declining numbers. Enrolment dropped by 250 in the Saanich district this past year and will do the same again in September. The numbers are expected to keep dipping until 2012, by which time enrolment will have fallen by 2,000 -- that's 25 per cent -- in a decade.
Such districts are still stuck with fixed expenses that don't move with student numbers: It costs as much to run a bus carrying 40 kids as 50. Schools with 300 students take as much to heat as those with 400.
The result? Saanich was forced to cut $3.6 million worth of expenses next year, five per cent of its total budget. (Remember that unlike the provincial government, school districts are not allowed to run deficits.)
Saanich would have had to cut eight or nine full-time teachers just to match the drop in enrolment, but other budget pressures pushed that number even higher. It now looks as though 50 teachers under contract in the Saanich district this past year will lose their jobs. The district expects students to have fewer electives to choose from. High school teachers expect class sizes in the low to mid thirties. School bus fees will jump to $20 a month. Community groups will pay more to use the schools.
Saanich looked at alternatives such as switching to a four-day week, or doing like the Greater Victoria district and extending spring break to two weeks, but rejected both ideas. Going to a four-day week saves lots of money in rural districts like the Gulf Islands, where a chunk of the budget is eaten up by water taxis and school buses, but has less impact in more urban areas. Cutting days wouldn't save teacher salaries (they get paid the same whether their hours are spread over five days or four) and would leave parents scrambling to find child care.
It's not just Saanich, of course. The story is being repeated around the province. Even in the Sooke district, one of just six in sa国际传媒 with stable or growing enrolment, it's nibble, nibble, nibble: Less attention for special-needs kids, desks don't get cleaned as often.
So, no, despite the provincial government's crowing about record spending, school boards don't have enough to keep up to rising costs. But what else do we expect, given the state of the economy? The finance minister's relatively rosy pre-election estimate of a $495-million 2009-10 budget deficit will probably be dwarfed once the real numbers are in.
Nobody without an Inukshuk logo can expect to squeeze more money out of the government.
The thing is, the Liberals would have more credibility, and earn more respect, if they just dropped the fa脙搂ade, were honest about the obvious and acknowledged that funding hasn't kept pace with inflation, that schools don't have enough in their wallets to keep standards from slipping.
The school districts might as well forget clamouring for more money when there isn't any, and the government should stop pretending that the system is fully funded when it isn't.
