Re: Look Outside the Classroom, editorial, March 25.
Counting widgets — apparently that’s how school district staff engage themselves according to the editorial exhorting school districts to “cut the fat.” It is rare to see a press editorial so bereft of perspective, balance and information. While editorials are often meant to be provocative, surely they have some obligation to support their opinions with something resembling facts.
Could the writer not provide one single actual example of what might be regarded as school district waste? Have they forgotten the years of under budgeting and cost offloading of the provincial government onto school districts, with, for example, unfunded salary agreements? Have they overlooked the $100 million!! dollars wasted on the BC Enterprise Student Information System (BCESIS) which has cost school districts untold hours of staff time. Have they forgotten the out-of-hand rejection of the Saanich School District’s locally developed and much less costly proposed replacement for that system?
Let’s forget this nonsensical dichotomy of “not taking money from the classrooms.” School Districts need administrators and non-teaching staff as well as teachers.
Our schools and school districts have suffered neglect and indifference from the province over the past decade.
Any so-called fat has long since been trimmed. Let’s actually invest in our public education system and develop the educated population we need for the future.
Ken Marsh, Sidney