The BC Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) is furious about the Province’s recent announcement to provide extra funds for special needs programs in private schools but not in the public system.
The Province is giving an extra $1 million to BC independent schools for special needs students. The public system isn’t receiving any additional funds.
The BCTF believes this will make a tiered education system. Families with special needs children will have to either pay expensive private school admission fees or, for those who can’t afford to do that, send their kids to underfunded programs in the public system.
To say the least, Prince George District Teachers’ Association President Richard Giroday is frustrated.
“I think parents need to recognize that this is really a slap in the face to all parents who have children in the public education system. I’m just thunderstruck by this.”
The funding announcement was made on Tuesday, the same day Giroday and others presented to the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services about the BCTF’s need for more special needs funding. In a statement, the BCTF says school districts have had to cut 24% of special education instructors since 2002 when BC public school teachers lost their collective agreements. In that time, the BCTF says the number of children with special needs in public schools has increased by 50%.
“One of the recommendations that have come up, again and again, is to provide stable, sustainable and adequate funding to enable school district’s to fulfill their responsibility to continue to provide access to quality public education for all students.”
It’s the third consecutive year the BCTF has requested this funding, and a recommendation Giroday says “the government has ignored three years in a row.”
The government funds public schools districts and independent schools based on a students need, which is ranked a level 1, 2, or 3. The Province breaks down public school funding like this:
Level 1 ($37,700 per student) – Physically Dependent, Deafblind
Level 2 ($18,850 per student) – Moderate to Profound Intellectual Disability, Physical Disability or Chronic Health Impairment, Visual Impairment, Deaf or Hard of Hearing Autism Spectrum Disorder
Level 3 ($9,500 per student) – Intensive Behaviour Interventions or Serious Mental Illness
The government states it’s putting more than $983 million into BC’s public schools for special needs programming. Giroday says he’d like to see the funding formula changed so the “amount of moneys that are necessary to provide the services (are) put back into education.
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