Province Législature Session Type de discours Date du discours Locuteur Fonction du locuteur Parti politique Colombie-Britannique 32e 3e Discours sur l’éducation 13 mai 1981 Brian Smith Minister of Education British Columbia Social Credit Party  Mr. Chairman, I have great pleasure this afternoon to rise in support of these progressive estimates in the Ministry of Education. Before I make a few brief introductory remarks I will introduce my staff arranged behind me here: Jim Carter, Deputy Minister of Education; Grant Fisher, Assistant Deputy Minister (Post Secondary); Glenn Wall, Acting Assistant Deputy Minister (Schools) and Jack Fleming, Assistant Deputy Minister (Finance). The year 1980-81 will be a year in which I hope we'll see some good changes being plotted out in the field of education. During the past six months I had the opportunity to go on a province-wide tour for two months in which I was able to visit some 70 schools in a number of districts and to hold 41 public forums on education.... I know. We had student and professional forums each day and we had public forums in the evening in 19 schools. About 1,000 briefs were received and an educational report is under final preparation. It will be released shortly and will be sent to every person who presented a brief. The modest cost of this tour was $125,000. We did spend money advertising. We advertised the tour because we were advertising for commentary on the public education system. We had very good response. I should also mention just a few areas of education this year which have received special attention. One is the area of special education and the needs of handicapped students. We have made major initiatives this year in providing educational services for the severely disabled, and the first member for Victoria will be pleased to hear that there are going to be some further initiatives for the gifted, believe it or not. We are going to be providing a major in-service training program of teachers for the gifted this year. I hope that this will progress to some gifted funding. In the area of handicapped education, the strides we have made have been most important. We're setting up regional resource centres in two sections of the province, and these will be expanding. We're taking steps to ensure that there is more provincial funding in the area of the severely handicapped. The strides made in special education have been, I think, particularly important. We are also revising the facilities manual, that document so often complained about, and the long approval system so often complained of is being streamlined. It is now going to be easier for districts to receive emergency funding and easier for small school districts with needs for small schools to receive the facilities needed. As evidence of that, our capital budget this year had a major increase in borrowing — from $120 million the previous year to $219 million this year. This is partly because some school districts have had shifts in school population, and we have some growth districts as well. We have encouraged some badly needed school construction not possible before. I'm also pleased to say that a number of changes were implemented following the education tour in such fields as scholarships and discipline. Changes in letter grades were made as well. We also gave leadership to arrange for portability of sick leave. We're trying to construct a system whereby portability of sick leave between school districts in this province can be brought about with provincial leadership. We have also altered and revised the administrative handbook which sets out the times that are spent by students in the school in various courses of study. We have introduced two new courses into the curriculum, which will be effective in September 1982. A number of changes have already been made. It is apparent that we must have a revision and modernization of the School Act, formerly the Public Schools Act. That document was created about 20 or 25 years ago and needs a considerable amount of changing and updating. I think it has to set out in much clearer form the relationship between the various participants in the education system, and point the directions of the future, and not simply be the somewhat mechanical document of powers and authority that it is today. It should point out the modern responsibilities and rights of the participants in the system. I know that that will occur, and that revision will take place in the next year. I believe that the rights of the disabled to an appropriate education must be guaranteed in law, and guidelines which will allow and assure that those rights can be exercised must be clearly set out. I anticipate that that will include an appeal procedure which will permit and, indeed, encourage parents of handicapped children to take part in decisions that are made as to the assessment and placement of their children, and which will allow for an avenue of appeal to some lay authority in their region against a placement decision which may be deemed by those parents to be inappropriate. Another very important question in education this year is teacher bargaining and the desires of teachers, which I heard during my tour, to have a much greater say and involvement in the decisions that are made concerning their schools and classrooms. That matter was considered by the B.C. Teachers Federation at their convention — they are going to be balloting on it — and by the B.C. School Trustees Association at their convention last weekend. I should also mention the fact — well known in this House, of course — that, because of the government's concern about the rising property assessments and the way that that impacts on the school finance formula, a school tax committee was established by this government to look into that matter, to meet with interested parties and to hold hearings if they wish. This committee has been active now for the past month, has received a number of submissions and briefs and will be making recommendations to government. The government moved to take important steps to try to cushion the effect of rising assessments by reducing the taxable value of home owners' property from 14.5 to 11 percent this year. So if you had a house assesed at $100,000 last year you would pay $14,500 tax. If that house climbed in value to $135,000 in the ensuing year you would pay tax on roughly the same amount. Where assessment increases were larger, that shift did not cushion the blow, but it was an important step taken by government. We will be examining the report of the school tax committee to try and find a long-term way of addressing this question. In the field of post-secondary education. I should also mention very briefly that operating budget increases for colleges and institutes were up 19 percent. The critical skill shortages that are acute in this province are being addressed by the provision of additional training. Under post-secondary education, we also increased the amount of money available for student aid, as a start to implementing in this province some of the changes that I hope will occur nationally, when the task force on student aid reports. The member for Burnaby will be pleased to know that it's been decided to fund women's access programs for a three year term and to assist in their establishment in the colleges. I thank her for the comments she made to me many times on that subject. Another matter that will come up for review in the year ahead, because of the provisions in the College and Institute Act, is a review of the functions of the three councils, which are required to be reviewed in 1982. I think that I will make more extensive remarks later during the course of my estimates and allow my critic a chance now.