It's not my intention to stand up today and make a case for public education as I believe all of council understands the intrinsic value of universal access to quality education in society founded on the principles of peace, order and good government; in a society that has reaffirmed it's commitment to equality and equity at many critical junctures in our 140 year + history; and - for the number crunchers amongst us - in a society that is striving hard to be competitive in an increasingly complex global economy.
Instead the case I want to make to you today is two-fold: why it matters now to speak out against the ongoing provincial underfunding of public education and why the city should add its voice to that of the school board, parents, community groups and others who have spoken out against cuts to education in Vancouver.
First, why now.
Contrary to one councillor's recent media comments, the school board has made many, many tough decisions over the past number of years. In fact if your child, or children, graduated eight years ago they had access to $51 million more in services that a child graduating today.
The School Board tried to protect students by keeping cuts away from the classroom, making cuts to the District Office that have seen two-thirds of the central staffing cut over the last decade. Imagine two-thirds of our core staff at the city gone.
Then the cuts spread to the support staff and facilities. Schools were put on a 35 year painting. A ridiculous concept. But it spread from the ridiculous to the sobering. Facilities staff are also responsible for seismic mitigation and the remaining staff try hard but it's hard to keep doing more with so much less.
Then the cuts moved to direct services. Libraries, special needs, ESL, fine arts, phys ed.
Cuts that have gone from skin to ligament to muscle and now to bone.
$18.1 million more dollars in cuts -- more than $69 million over the past nine years -- mean there is nothing left to cut that doesn't reach into the classroom. Over 100 teachers, loss of bands and strings, multicultural liaison support workers, more special needs. The list goes on and on to the many things that the board has been trying to shield children and families from these long years of cuts. Even the bones of our school system can no longer be protected with such a long knife.
Second, why the corporate entity of the City of Vancouver should care.
In the short term there is a very simple business case. There will be gaps left in service for children and families and we will be called on to fill them as the City is the last line of defence for children and families.
But is the longer term impacts we should have our eyes on. As mentioned earlier by Councillor Anton, Vancouver is consistently one of the most liveable cities in the world. And public education is one of the key factors in that. New immigrants consistently rate our education system as one of the top three reasons to immigrate here and every single ranking on liveability looks at public education in making their assessment.
If we want to trumpet liveability, we also need to stand up for the things that make us liveable. I am asking us today to stand up for education for precisely that reason.
Finally, and in anticipation of at least one of Councillor Anton's other oppositions, the argument that advocacy for public education funding somehow diminished the community's support for public education is a fallacy.
If you have a debt, you have a debt no matter how hard you try to hide it.
By disclosing the debt, and raising our voices with the school board and the community to draw attention to it, we avail ourselves of the only chance we have of getting out of the hole that the provincial government has been digging in Vancouver's public education system.
In closing, I hope that you will all not only support the motion on the floor but also use your own voice -- as many of you already have -- to draw attention to this most critical of issues in our city.
