The Institute for Public Education BC stands in solidarity with the k’emlúps te Secwe̓pemc First Nation and the many families and communities dealing with the horrific confirmation that 215 children were buried on the grounds of what was known as the Kamloops Residential School.
We know that these children and thousands and thousands more over generations were stolen from their parents, imprisoned, and abused in institutions of church and state.
We understand that Indigenous people here and across the country are dealing with the anguish and trauma of this discovery and the pain of their own experiences.
We honor the generations of survivors and the children and youth who never returned.
We recommit to a vision of public education in which each and every Indigenous child is affirmed, supported, encouraged and valued.
We take to heart the TRC Calls to Action and will strive to ensure our work answers these calls. We call on all Canadians to demand that these calls to action are fully realized.
IPE/BC monitors public funding that goes to private schools in British Columbia and publishes an annual update.
“As schools look toward post-pandemic recovery, teacher unions and researchers are at a crucial junction in the defense
This technical report summarizes how education funding is structured and distributed in each of the Canadian provinces. Political and social factors influencing public education and how it is funded include neo-liberal ideology, competition with other public services, and the impact of public school advocates. Education is the responsibility of provinces in Canada and the details of how funding is distributed vary according to province. However, there are some common questions and increasingly common patterns in the funding models. Equity is a central intention built into Canadian funding models, although the approaches are subject to contestation. Funding decisions have been increasingly centralized in provincial governments and away from school boards, with boards being eliminated in some provinces. Property taxes are becoming a decreasing source of funding, with provincial revenue from other taxation making up a greater proportion.
Public funding for private schools may be the most obvious way public education in British Columbia is being privatized, but there are other less obvious privatizing strategies at work. This is a working paper for an IPE/BC workshop that offers analysis of 1) the common narratives that legitimize and promote privatization thus drawing the public into a manufactured consent of privatization and 2) specific contexts in which this privatization in manifest, such as personalized learning (especially with technology), choice programs, school fees and fund raising, business principles of school administration, corporate sponsorships, fee paying international student enrollment, and publicly funded private schools.
You can check out our analysis of public funding for private schools in BC, and our arguments for discontinuing these subsidies to private schools, 
residents across the province. A new poll finds that four-in-five British Columbians (78%) oppose providing taxpayer funds for elite or preparatory private schools in the province, with a total of 60% being strongly opposed to the idea.
