A lot can change in a day.
The B.C. government proved that when it quickly changed its tone over the course of a few hours Tuesday on the matter of releasing the rural education review, which school districts across the province have been demanding to see.
An auto enthusiast might reference a zero-to-60 rate, but as a car-illiterate, I’ll just say this: It went real fast.
With no indication of seeing the report anytime soon, South Okanagan school districts sent letters to the Ministry of Education, calling for the full release of that report — importantly not just portions of the report.
Goes to show you SD #67 Board of Education Advocacy for release of the report worked https://t.co/85RzGTnGoX
— Linda Van Alphen (@vanalphen_linda) March 7, 2018
Related: Rural education draft report to be released ‘in coming days’
It started Tuesday morning, when School District 67 Superintendent Wendy Hyer heard word the ministry was planning on releasing (importantly) portions of the report.
That’s problematic because ministries can release a portion of a report to justify a decision, while ignoring the context that might go against that decision (think the B.C. Liberals’ 2015 ICBC report), and that’s particularly troubling when clicks on follow-up news stories with more thorough fact-checking nosedive compared to the initial hits.
Mere minutes later, the government said it would be using the review to inform its own education funding review announced on March 1, adding to a litany of reviews and consultations.
Diabolical or not, not releasing the initial report in its entirety precludes the rest of us from context-checking the NDP review’s findings about the Liberal review’s findings.
Related: Province releasing results of rural education report ‘shortly’
The ministry also said it would be releasing the “results of the consultation and findings … in the coming weeks,” so I asked if that meant the whole report or just piecemeal releases.
Fast forward a mere three-and-a-half hours:
“The ministry will be posting a number of documents to our website in the coming days as part of our funding model review. Documents to be posted will include a discussion paper on the funding model and the draft rural education report.”
Moving from no indication of a release to a partial release eventually to an indeterminate amount released in weeks to the draft report being released in days is a dizzying acceleration when you have lowered standards.
So, it seems in the span of a day, they've gone from: No plans on releasing anything to releasing parts of the report to releasing uncertain portions of the report, potentially the full report in the coming weeks to releasing a draft report in the coming days. #bced #bcpoli
— Dustin Godfrey 📰 (@dustinrgodfrey) March 7, 2018
Related: School board, MLA want rural education report released
Typical movement from the government is glacial at best, and that’s most evident in the lead-up to this report.
It’s worth noting a 2012 B.C. Teachers Federation fact sheet (at 40-plus pages, more like a fact novella), which you’d be forgiven for mistaking for a 2016 fact novella, says rural areas were “particularly hard-hit by school closures in recent years.”
Yet, it took four years to commission the report and another several months until the report was finished. A year later, still no report.
The B.C. Liberals have the shame of taking teachers to the highest courts to continue spending the lowest per-capita on education, but the NDP, who so pleased themselves in taking the Liberals to task on education, are continuing the tradition of taking the scenic route on finding solutions.
Related: Penticton candidates spar on school closures
They’ve had since summer to release this report, and yet Fleming has the gall to point his finger at the Liberals for not releasing it in the interim.
Were it not for the advocacy of local politicians, I’m not sure the rural education report would have seen the light of day — at least, not outside some new interpretation of the report through the education funding review.
Positive result from advocacy by BCSTA Thompson Okanagan Branch, SD67, SD53, SD57, @BC_STA & other districts around the province. Thank you @Rob_Fleming. https://t.co/jeLvIcaaW9
— Ginny Manning (@GinnyManning) March 8, 2018
And how long will that take? And after that, how long until we see real policies?
Quit spinning your tires — show us the progressives can make some progress.
Dustin Godfrey is a reporter with the Penticton Western News.
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