Possible Source of Funding for Vancouver's Ailing Public School System

In a year when the Vancouver School Board is experiencing a $24M budgetary shortfall, it makes sense to search for extra sources of revenue. It is particularly important this year, as the School Board Trustees recently voted against a budget that would cut or close many valuable programs like band and strings, Mini schools, gifted education and support for anti-racism, Indigenous students and more. It is a crisis which could easily end in the Trustees being fired and a single administrator replacing them--possibly making more cuts with little or no democratic process in place.

In 2015, for the first time, Vancouver provided more in school taxes ($463 million) than it received in provincial funding ($448 million) - a loss of $15 million - that works out to the Vancouver school tax being 103% of what we receive in provincial funding, compared to the rest of Metro, which pays 39% in terms of provincial funding it receives. The principle of sharing property tax revenue from all municipalities makes sense so that "have not" regions are subsidized by "have" regions. By no means is this a plea to take away funding from regions that are suffering economically.

Because the province is doing well and the economy is strong, the government predicts a surplus budget this year. There is plenty to go around and investing in public education is one of the most high yield investments we can make as a society. Before May 18, when the provincial budget is finalized, more dollars ought to be earmarked for public education.

It seems like this is a good year for Vancouver to receive more of its property tax dollars back. In years when Vancouver schools are doing well, it makes a great deal of sense for the city to share its bounty with the rest of the province. This year, let school-going Vancouverites to benefit, just once, from skyrocketing real estate.