Ire over special needs school funding from parents, teachers groups

VICTORIA (NEWS 1130) – The provincial government is committing another $1 million towards 15 private schools serving students with special needs. It’s a move the parent advocacy group BC Education Access feels moves us further towards a two-tiered education system.

The new money benefits roughly 500 students, whose parents pay tuition between $10,000 and $25,000 a year, according to the group’s Andrea Kennedy. She says it comes at a time when special needs teachers, staff, and services are being cut in the public system. “It really means that if you have the money to pay for the education you can get the support for your children, but if you don’t… your child will struggle in the public education system.”

The province says it funds special needs students in the public system to the tune of $983 million every year, and that even with this extra $1 million, the per-pupil funding is still higher compared to private schools.

Private school students do get half the per-pupil funding that public school kids get, which is the same for special needs students.

But the difference, Kennedy notes, is that private students get all of their special needs allotment while in the public system it’s spread around by the districts. She argues that adding another $1 million into the private system just tips the scales even further.

Glen Hansman, president of the BC Teacher’s Federation, says families with children with special needs shouldn’t have to come up with thousands of dollars for private schools because public schools don’t have support.

“We have lost about 1,600 of our special education teachers around the province over the past 15 years or so. Those are the people that would be providing one-on-one support to those kids that need it most,” Hansman says.

“Teachers have been strongly advocating for decades, to try to get supports back in, to fund their special education teachers, to have smaller classes so we can province that one-on-one support.”