In advance of the Spring Legislative session and the adoption of the provincial budget, IPE/BC sent a submission, Placing a Priority on Public Education, to the Premier and Ministers of Education and Child Care, Infrastructure, and Post Secondary and Future Skills. We focused on six top priorities, while recognizing that there are many more concerns resulting from inadequate education funding and support to address. We appreciate that the Deputy Minister for Education and Child Care recently sent a thorough response, addressing each of our recommendations, and we thank her very much for that.
However, we remain very worried for BC’s public schools and post-secondary institutions. We are seeing yet another devastating round of cuts in services, programs, staffing and supports as school boards prepare their 2025/26 budgets.
We know that a quality, accessible, inclusive and well-funded public education system is key to a healthy democracy and thriving society. And, given the complex challenges we’re facing now and can expect to face in the future, the role of education is more important than ever. Asking our public schools, already under considerable pressure, to keep doing more and more with less and less is simply not sustainable.
We join with the many parents/caregivers, students, staff, and public school communities in calling for the BC government to recognize and address the gap between the funding it provides and the actual cost of delivering education services and support to students in districts throughout the province.
