We all benefit from a strong education system
MLA Rob Fleming. W elcome to the 2016 – 2017 school year! I hope you had a great summer and that students and their families are ready to return to the business of learning. Whether you will be dropping your child off for the first day of kindergarten or you are a veteran parent of a school-aged child, the start of a new school year is always a time filled with excitement.
These days I experience back to school as a parent of two amazing kids. I get to see their hopes and ease their worries about a new school year.It’s a key transition that reminds me how important our K–12 education system is in shaping our children and helping them realize their potential. I see the difference teachers, administrators and support staff can make when they meet with an anxious child and their parents before the first day of class , when they provide that extra attention to a student who is struggling with their coursework, or when they kickstart new programs to ensure our children will have the skills they need to succeed in our advanced economy.
We know that all those supportive experiences young people have in the classroom add up. A strong public education system makes the difference for families and for our province as a whole.We all benefit when our young people are given the skills and support they need to do well. Our province cannot have a sustainable and prosperous future without the next generation of skilled professionals, workers, entrepreneurs and researchers. That’ s why we need to ensure our public education system is properly funded.
As the Official Opposition’s spokesperson for Education, I have been talking with British Columbians about improving K–12 education. British Columbians know that education in B.C.has fallen from the second best funded in the country to second worst in the past decade. Here in Victoria, and in all corners of the province, families are worried that when their children go back to school this year we’ll see the impacts of underfunding in more school closures, program cuts and class size increases.
We can do better.We know the power education has to transform lives and open up new worlds of possibility. That’ s why I am inviting British Columbians to join me in a conversation about how we focus resources in the classroom and improve learning for every child.
With that said, I am extending my best wishes to all students, parents and employees for a productive and wonderful school year filled with many opportunities, lifelong relationships and the joys of success and accomplishment.