Serving as a school trustee in B.C. is one of the most thankless jobs in the province. When Education Minister Peter Fassbender announced that he would not go ahead with a byelection to replace the fired Cowichan Valley school board, the head of the parent advisory council welcomed the news.
Caroline Kirman said Mike McKay, who had been appointed to take over the powers of the board, was doing a good job in restructuring the district, and parents wanted that stability to continue.
“I think, first and foremost, he’s always had students in mind and that has actually been a refreshing change because previous boards have taken some of the other aspects of their governance as more of a priority sometimes,” she said.
For a trustee, that has to hurt. Especially for those who were fired.
When we elect people to office, we expect they have power to go with the responsibility we have handed them. In the case of school boards, that is largely an illusion. The boards are powerless in many areas that really matter. The financial parameters are set by the province. The money comes from the province. Trustees can only set budgets within the narrow borders established by the ministry.
Training and certification of teachers, standards and methods of testing, and the curriculum are all determined by the ministry. Decisions on building schools are ultimately made by the government. Employees are hired by principals and other staff, circumscribed by collective agreements.
In effect, the board members become low-paid spokespeople for the government — or lightning rods for the government. The elected trustees have little ability to change direction and must wear decisions made by the province.
School boards have long been viewed with suspicion by higher governments. That’s true across Canada, in the U.S. and in other countries. Until 1958, B.C. had school inspectors who roamed the province, spending half a day in every classroom, twice a year. They told teachers and trustees how to do their jobs and appointed trustees where none had been elected.
“Since 1872, when public education began in British Columbia, provincial authorities in Victoria have greatly circumscribed the scope of local authority by controlling capital expenditures, defining cost-sharing formulas and enforcing regulations over virtually all aspects of schooling,” said a paper from the University of Victoria’s Faculty of Education in 1997.
In many ways, central control of education is necessary. We want to know that every child in the province is being taught to the same standards. Provincial financial power can ensure that districts with smaller tax bases don’t suffer in their ability to serve their students.
But we expect that our elected trustees will be able to make decisions about education that are in the interests of local students and parents.
They do in some areas, but where the School Act sets out the powers of boards, a recurring phrase is: “subject to the orders of the minister.” Many of the boards’ responsibilities involve reports to the minister. It reads more like a straitjacket than a granting of powers.
School boards in B.C. once had the power to set the education portion of municipal taxes, but that is long gone.
Last year, former Vancouver school trustee William Bruneau wrote a letter to the Vancouver Sun in which he said: “The School Act gives school boards big responsibilities, but denies them the means — especially financial means — to live up to those responsibilities.” He wrote that the province should be honest and either give boards taxation power or fire them all.
If the provincial government isn’t willing to give trustees meaningful power, it should end the expensive charade and follow Bruneau’s advice.
