A controversial Langley school land swap is the direct result of a provincial government policy that forces publicly funded school districts to raise extra money to fund school construction.
So says the founder of a B.C. lobby group against school property sales, Jessica Van der Veen of LANDS! (Let’s Agree Not to Dispose of Schools!).
Van der Veen says the province is pressuring school districts to “bring money to the table” to help pay for new schools.
That requirement, Van der Veen says, leaves districts like Langley with few real options other than selling off property, and she believes it forced the much-criticized deal to sell a school site in the Routley neighbourhood to a private developer to obtain land for a school site in Yorkson.
Van der Veen says school lands should be set aside in trust for future generations. If they are not, she warns, when the number of students begins to rise again, public schools will be unable to accommodate them.
She dismisses provincial government stats that forecast a continuing decline in school enrollment, saying the education ministry numbers ignore projections of a “baby boom echo” that will increase student populations and more than make up for the current drop.
“They’re [the education ministry] using crap data.”
In 2008, following a lobbying campaign by LANDS!, the provincial government began requiring Ministry of Education approval before a sale could proceed.
Despite the official moratorium, at least 10 school land sales have been approved, Van der Veen says.
“It’s [the moratorium] getting mushier and mushier.”
Van der Veen, a Vancouver Island resident, ran as the NDP candidate for Oak Bay Gordon Head in 2009, finishing a close second behind Liberal Ida Chong.
In response to a Times query, the provincial Ministry of Education e-mailed a written statement defending the government handling of school land sales without responding to Van der Veen’s specific charge of a money-on-the-table policy.
“Under the school closure and disposal policy, school districts are no longer able to dispose of school properties [unless it is] for community or educational use on a case by case basis in exceptional circumstances,” the statement says.
The e-mail appears to agree with Van der Veen’s assessment of a coming rebound in the number of students, saying the trend of declining enrollment over the last decade “…is expected to slow over the next three years and begin increasing again in 2014.”
The provincial government, the statement adds, “has committed more than $3.9 billion on school capital and maintenance projects, which include more than $1.8 billion to complete 83 new and replacement schools, 149 additions, 26 renovations and 22 site acquisitions across British Columbia.”
