Re: “Adviser says VSB could close 19 schools,” June 10.
I have worked to oppose school lands sales across B.C. since 2007. In the majority of cases potential land sales are driving the closures, not the other way round. False assumptions to justify closure and sales include the myth of “declining” enrolment and the idea that schools are “surplus.”
In 2004, B.C. Stats changed its population projection methodology back to 1990s methods. These include such howlers as counting the number of new telephone landlines as a valid predictor of population. Staff was told to underestimate numbers of people per household. Staff who objected were dismissed. This government’s population projections are inaccurate.
No government before this one has ever sold school lands en masse. Population fluctuations are normal, and education should be planned on a 30 year time horizon. Echo-boomers are having babies. When the courts finally rule that B.C. must restore higher standards for class size (i.e. smaller classes) there will not be a “surplus” classroom in B.C.
This government has created fake balanced budgets for 14 years by selling forest lands, school lands, courthouses, offices and seniors’ care homes — our public assets. Selling schools for short term cash is an unsustainable business model based on false assumptions.
Public school lands belong to our great-grandchildren. They are not ours to sell.
Jessica Van der Veen, Victoria
