June 21, 2016

Some Animals are More Equal Than Others

The Vancouver School Board released the names of 12 schools that could close to make up a $27M budget deficit – eleven of which are in East Van. This is a preliminary list, according to School Board Chairman Lombardi, so whoever makes the most noise gets to stay.
This is part of a larger, School Board-approved plan to possibly close up to 21 schools throughout the city. More information from the Vancouver Sun here.

On the block

Interestingly, the Daily Scot posted about a similar piece in May, with a focus on the purported relationship between neighbourhood unit vacancy and school closures.
As happens a lot in Vancouver, the city was quick to finger the Province as the primary culprit, citing new seismic and minimum-occupancy regulations from Victoria that will force the closures. As also happens a lot, the Province blames the City for not doing enough to meet these occupancy minimums and forcing the Province’s hand.
But it is the job of BC Education Minister, Mike Bernier, to put a ‘glass half full’ spin on the situation, which he has. After referring to a 2015 Ernst and Young report suggesting that closing 19 schools could save $37M per year, he then channels George Orwell:
“I look at that and say, ‘Imagine if I was a parent in Vancouver: What would $37-million a year in Vancouver buy?’” Mr. Bernier told a news conference on Monday. “How many instructional teachers, support teachers, programs? What could you do with $37-million?”

Education Minister Mike Bernier (Globe and Mail) 

“Amalgamation offers parents in Vancouver more, not less. A school with more students is one that can offer more and better programs. It means access to sports and music programs that many under-capacity schools just don’t have.”
If he actually believes that the closure of 19 schools will ‘free up’ $37M for the remaining schools – after closing the $25M+ funding deficit – then he knows shockingly little about the actual management of budgets for a person of his position. What it means is $37M less for Vancouver schools, because now they don’t need it. That’s how budgets work.
Less is not More. Freedom is not Slavery. Ignorance is not Strength. And that spat of white viscous material that just landed on your scalp? Don’t believe the Education Minister when he tells you with a straight face that it’s sunshine, because that’s not how pigeons operate.

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  1. Well, to be fair, 4 of the schools are annexes, so the kids will just go to the elementary school they’d be attending from grade 4 anyway. And the other elementaries slated for closure have 100-250 kids and are in need of seismic upgrades. It makes way more sense to consolidate those into larger schools that are already upgraded or getting upgrades.
    Seismic upgrades are running $10m-$15m per school. I think we can do better than spend $10m on a school with 100 pupils and declining population…
    Not everything needs to be viewed as the evil govt doing evil things. There are plenty of those, but we’re not going to improve anything without taking a balanced view of things and understanding there will always be hard, unpleasant decisions to be made…

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      There’s nothing wrong with better seismic standards or promoting better efficiency for your infrastructure (although insisting on 95% capacity is a stretch). There doesn’t seem to be anything nefarious about this. It’s the completely disingenuous ‘more for all’ argument the Minister is using. There will not be more for schools. There will just be less – or the same – for fewer of them. And he knows it.

  2. Looking at the big picture, priorities matter.
    It may work magnificently if the VSB declared all schools to be private. Or to propose building classrooms on the underside of the Massey Bridge. The money will then flow. Billions and billions. More than enough to cover the artificial shortfall between what was taxed and what was returned, to seismically upgrade all older schools, and to help build a lot more less expensive family housing using less land in neighbourhoods where kids are growing out of the school system and are not being adequately replaced by younger kids because families are moving to where housing is cheaper.
    Of interest, the old Socreds had their share of used car salesmen and the rare post-secondary degree. Today their progeny in all but name includes Mike Bernier, who has 20 years experience in the northern gas industry and was mayor of Dawson Creek. The premier had a controversial term as education minister under Gordon Campbell before being forced to “retire” to several well-remunerated years as a talking head on tabloid radio. That job suited her better than the premiership.
    I suppose one can find the modicum of progress there after a few Heinekens.

    1. Of similar, parallel interest, in the 2013 BC provincial election, a third of NDP candidates were past/present organized labour officials, and the vast majority had zero business experience. Even the professions are grossly under-represented. An even more shuddering fact was that the NDP had as many candidates from the …. 90s …. as the BC Liberals had from more recent Campbell era.

  3. Funding is per pupil, is it not ?
    If schools are closed there are REAL savings. These savings can be invested into more teachers, more assistants and better class rooms.
    It is as simple as that.
    Unclear what the VSB doesn’t get here. This is not new news. It was knows FOR YEARS that some schools had to be closed.
    Missing is an adult debate about monetization of valuable LAND the schools sit on. This land is worth hundreds of millions, potentially $1B+. As a steward of our money and assets (incl. land) I expect them to discuss it, scope out potential options and then implement them. Learn from UBC (where I live and used to sit on the resident council called UNA for 3 years). It can be done. UBC has made 100’s of millions. Why not the VSB ?
    UBC leases the land to developers. Schools could be multi-story, with the first 2-3 being a school and the remaining 3 to 35 offices, condos or affordable housing. Some sites might remain schools while others will be leased for 10, 50 or 99 years. Some might be sold even. That debate is missing in Vancouver. Why ?

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      Oh, yes, Thomas. This will save money. But the savings windfall isn’t going back to Vancouver schools, and the Minister knows it. Funding per pupil is a minimum, and those funds will remain.
      The claim that school closure savings will reap benefits to those schools that remain open is pure bunk. The province isn’t going to start sending more money per pupil to ‘School A’ just because ‘School B’ closes. School A will get the minimal amount to cover the new pupils it absorbs from School B, and no more; nothing they didn’t have before on a per-student basis. This may be fiscally preferable, but don’t b.s. and say schools are going to be better off or better funded.

      1. “But the savings windfall isn’t going back to Vancouver schools” – Absolute nonsense. What do you think happens if the VSB runs massive deficits for a few years? That comes out of accumulated surplus and harms the VSB financial picture in the long-term. By avoiding reckless, wasteful spending the VSB isn’t stealing from the future.

      2. The shortfall between the total school tax revenue collected by the province from Vancouver taxpayers and what was returned by the province to the VSB is a helluva big chunk of nonsense.
        My question is, What did the province do with the ~$40 million it kept?

  4. Most other school districts close schools when necessary, but the VSB would rather whine about it for two decades before even considering action. VSB is by far – by far – the worst performing school district in the province in this respect. They are in perpetual ‘special snowflake mode’, believing that they should never, ever have to close a school whose enrolment has dwindled.
    And I love that this:
    “A school with more students is one that can offer more and better programs. It means access to sports and music programs that many under-capacity schools just don’t have.”
    Is presented as some sort of bizarre, alien reasoning. You can’t make this stuff up!

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      It’s not bizarre and alien. It’s just horses**t. Quite common in some parts. This isn’t the difference between a sparsely attended rural school suddenly receiving the spillover from an overcrowded urban one with all the trimmings. Vancouver schools average 85% capacity. Running fewer of them at 95% won’t mean more of anything per pupil. Just more kids and a few more teachers to accommodate the new numbers.

      1. I don’t know, Dan. If you have 2 schools each with ~100 kids, then the strings program in each would have, say, 10 kids, and a single teacher could teach at both, provided he/she shuffled backwards and forwards, spending as much time shuttling as teaching. Or, you could put the schools together, and the 20 kids would get twice as much practice time just by being together, and there would be more instruction time as well, since the teacher is not shuttling around the city.
        You might think this is a hypothetical situation. It is. Actually, the strings teachers were shuttling between 4 schools before the VSB cancelled the strings programs in all but 6 schools in the city this year…

  5. Well Chris, which part of “hypothetical situation. It is.” is not clear to you?
    But I did look up some schools:
    Seymour – 110 – band
    Queen Alexandra – 193 – band
    MacCorkindale – 188 – strings
    Britannia – 194 – band
    There, I couldn’t find any. You win. Congratulations.

    1. Don’t get all bent out of shape because I asked for realistic scenarios. Hypothetical is perfectly clear to me thank you. Not looking to ‘win’. Looking for a good, productive dialogue about an issue that I think deserves same.
      cheers,
      CK

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