The new minister of education appears willing to revisit the Delta school district's bussing issue, according to Vicki Huntington. The independent Delta South MLA said last week that Peter Fassbender will re-examine the formula that resulted in severe cuts to the district's transportation funding.
Huntington noted the minister, responding to questions in the legislature, said, "We do recognize there are probably six districts in the province that have some unique issues as it relates to the transportation issue... We have a technical review committee that we have asked to sit down and take a look at those unique issues and to determine whether or not some adjustment in that formula is warranted."
At a previous meeting, Huntington said, ministry staff pledged to consider changes to geographic and rural components of the funding formula, but she noted she was also cautioned those changes wouldn't offset the budget cuts in their entirety.
She said the minister's promised review is a step in the right direction.
"The minister says they're now taking another look at the overall funding formula, and I think it will make a difference," said Huntington. "We'll have to wait and see what their
roposals are and go from there."
Huntington, who said her office has been inundated with correspondence on the issue, said the minister warned that any additional transportation money for Delta would have to come out of the province-wide education budget and would affect other districts.
The Delta school board approved a series of budget cuts this spring, including elimination of bussing for most
students. To make up for a phased $728,000 transportation funding cut from the province, the district eliminated the rural bus program, although the service for special needs students will be maintained.
The move angered many parents living in rural areas, who said their kids' safety was being jeopardized.
In June, board chair Laura Dixon wrote a "final letter" to the ministry, this time to Fassbender, asking him to revisit the issue and pointing out the unique geography of Delta.
She noted a request to previous minister Don McRae last fall to revisit the issue was declined as was a follow-up this spring.
"On April 29, 2013, we received a response from deputy minister James Gorman indicating that the ministry believes the funding formula is fair. We do not agree. At the time of Mr. Gorman's response it was a provincial election and no minister was in place. We are now writing to you as the new minister of education and urge you to consider the challenges Delta is facing with regard to student transportation," Dixon wrote.
Following the board's budget decision, a proposal was put forward by parents to keep the program operating for a year in the hope the government would reverse the funding cut. In exchange, the parents would pay a fee of $200 per child. The board turned down the offer, saying the fee would not cover the cost.
