LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

VSB’s tight books spark opinions Re: It’s no wonder VSB can’t balance books, column, Nov. 1

The Vancouver school board has 13 separate union agreements, including one in which 30 full-time employees have nothing to do for half the year ( but get paid anyway). Seems the board is run mainly for the benefit of unionized employees. The inter-union jurisdictional wrangling alone must be a nightmare for VSB managers, encouraging inefficiency and sick leave.

What took the provincial government so long to intervene? Time to contract out much of the non-teaching work.

I am tired of British Columbia’s taxpayers continuing to bail out a Vancouver school board poorly led by Vision trustees. G. Reynard, North Vancouver Imagine! A school board committed to keeping schools open and honouring contracts!

The shameful behaviour not addressed by Vaughn Palmer is the systematic destruction of the public school system by the provincial government. Acquiescence by school boards across the province has cleared the path for the end goal — more privatization of schools. We need only look south to the United States to see the future: inferior schools for the poor, private schools for the middle and upper classes, and the loss of education as a vehicle for a more equal society.

The Vancouver school board is not a rogue but a hero, and should be commended for its efforts to expose the agenda of a government determined to break public education. Linda Shuto, Vancouver

Auditor’s proposals don’t serve schools Re: Report on VSB cites excess space, tight labour contracts, Oct. 29

The Liberals have staged a coup against an elected school board in Vancouver. I was a trustee in the 1980s, the last time the government of B.C. (Social Credit) took over an elected school board. The Vancouver school board in those days sold the land the Wall Centre is on. We haven’t a school in Yaletown, nor the money to buy land at today’s prices.

Consider the bombshells in the auditor’s recommendations. First, she plans to sell off irreplaceable school land for posh developments, which has Realtors salivating, anticipating making a lot of private money out of publicly owned school property.

These properties have been accumulated by Vancouver residents for a hundred years. So now we have too many playgrounds, too much grass for kids, and too much space to learn and play in — especially considering how many schoolkids live in apartment blocks, being raised on balconies.

The second recommendation is usually called union breaking and contract stripping. That’s where the government takes collectively bargained contracts and breaks them.

We cannot allow this to happen. We must defend public schools. This land grab is a bad solution to underfunding education.

The Liberals’ contempt for Vancouver and our public schools has hit a new low, and it’s time we fought back. Burning the furniture is not a way to pay for heating schools. Phillip Rankin, former COPE trustee