Editor, The News:
Christy Clark has given researchers a great opportunity to find some truth.
By removing supports for students with special needs and increasing class sizes for the past 12 years – a complete school cycle for this year’s graduating class – she has created a great study sample for educational researchers.
I’d like to see a comparison between the students graduating today and 12 years ago.
I’d like to see comparisons, not only with academic achievement, but also social skills and adaptability.
Also, we’d need a comparison with the amount of additional resources (tutors, speech and occupational therapists) parents contributed to the two populations.
Was the money held back by eliminating the supports that teachers negotiated a true saving? Or will we be paying those dollars over the next 50 years in some way to support those kids?
But I’m a realist. Why bother with the study? By the time the effects of the cuts could be documented Christy Clark will be out of Victoria.
She’ll be behind some boardroom table blaming the current regime for rising unemployment, criminal justice, and social services costs.
We need desperately to escape this four-year cycle of balancing books. It just makes it too easy to use deceit to create propaganda.
Janet Amsden
Maple Ridge
