Protest Against Education Austerity

We are organizing a rally against austerity towards students!

The BC ministry of education has put the Vancouver School Board through dozens of budget shortfalls in the past and quite recently. The VSB is exploring the possibilities of closing up to 19-21 schools, mainly on Vancouver’s East Side: a place where the working-class, urban First Nations, and immigrants are concentrated. School closures were recommended by consulting firm Ernst and Young, acting on behalf of the Liberal provincial government, as part of an “asset rationalization approach” to manage the VSB’s finances. The provincial government has continually reduced funding for public education, and has previously asked the VSB to close schools before the board goes ahead with seismic upgrades. The school closures would mean that by 2030, up to 5,167 fewer seats would be available in Vancouver’s schools. The “Long Range Facilities Plan” , which proposes school closures and came as a result of Ernst and Young’s report, has been tentatively adopted by the VSB and will become final, after some public consultation, by June 30th.

What the BC Student Alliance intends on doing is organizing a rally on the private property of the VSB at 1:00PM on the deadline of the Budget proposals (June 30), to stand in solidarity with all the marginalized students that are not being heard by the ministries bureaucracy. It will be similar to the “Rally for Education” organized on May 28th but with not only high schoolers speaking. We will have teachers and university students alike speaking about confronting austerity in whatever form it takes on.

More details on this event will be posted shortly.