High school students in Surrey demonstrated last week to bring attention to their rejection of shifts being implemented as a resolution to the lack of classroom space and their demand for more funding instead.
Operating shifts in high schools is not a new concept. My sister and I attended high school in Coquitlam in the mid-1950s and for two terms our school operated on split shifts (one in the morning, the other in the afternoon). This was done to address a shortage of classroom space in a rapidly growing school district as is the case in Surrey today.
Each of us was on a different shift. Now one might assume that in those days, most mothers did not work outside the home and therefore having children on different shifts at school wasn’t a concern.
However, in our case, we had another younger sibling who, because of serious health issues, required several surgeries. Unlike today, there was no universal medicare and our mother had to go to work to help pay that child’s doctors’ bills.
Like other families in that district, we managed the issue of school on shifts and the benefit was that while Mom and Dad were at work, one of us was there to see the younger child off to elementary school and the other was there to care for her when she came home.
In today’s economy there is a lesson to be learned for those students in Surrey and for many others was well, especially those who represent the interests of all British Columbians in all levels of government.
That lesson is that it is time to live within our means. Governments today are like a family maxed out on all available credit cards and lines of credit with no way of increasing their income.
Decisions need to be made about how best to manage the available income without going further into debt. Unlike a family, governments, including school boards, can’t declare bankruptcy and start over. Currently, federal and provincial deficits and total debt, which requires large interest payments, are at unprecedented levels.
Reports in the news remind us that the leading edge of the boomer generation reaches age 65 this year. This means that the tax-paying workforce will start to shrink, putting even more pressure on the incomes of governments at all levels and making increases in taxes even more difficult and unpalatable.
Those students in Surrey and the rest of their generation will, as they move into adulthood, unfortunately feel more of the effects of this change in demographics (read Boom, Bust and Echo by David Foote) on the economy without adding more debt to the equation today.
E. McRae, Surrey
