(Aired March 18, 2010)

And so after all the reconfiguration in School District 73, after all the work done by administration, all the work done by the Trustees to attend all those meetings with parents around the District, we're still going to be 2.4 million dollars short in the budget. That means 30-50 teachers are likely to lose their jobs for September.

We're going to have all-day kindergarten, which in my mind is a luxury we can't afford, yet we're not going to be in a position to fund basic education for our children. What's wrong with that picture? It's totally wrong for the province to continue the status quo in funding for education, without taking into account the need for a new model.

Everyone is saying the model is broken, everyone is blaming declining enrollment, yet the government refuses to sit down and restructure the system so we can accomplish our goals without having to drop the standards of education. To paraphrase the old adage- when it's broke, fix it.

I am so sick of our MLA's and other government ministers telling us education spending is higher than ever. It's a totally irrelevant statement. It's irrelevant because despite the new money, you're not addressing the problems. How do we get that message through? There has to be a way to convene some sort of think tank to come up with new ways of doing things.

Declining enrollment is an ongoing problem. Restructuring school boundaries as the board did this year is going to continue to be a problem. And kids will probably still have to change schools, take more busses and become acclimatised to changing methods of delivery. But when they get to whatever classroom they're going to, they should expect to get the best education we can provide. And we're not providing it.

Teachers aren't above criticism here either, but that's another story for another day. The point is-we need to have an overhaul. The province has to get serious about restructuring. Until that happens, our students will continue to be shortchanged, and fall further behind.