Open letters
Submission to the standing committee on finance and economic affairs
- Authors: Bill Templeman
- Excerpt: To summarize: the Ministry of Education is enabling school boards to deal with low enrolment by closing small, neighbourhood schools and busing students to large, consolidated schools. Clearly the option of closing schools is the easiest way to remedy lower-enroment. The goal of this submission is to make the point that the easier response is not the best response in terms of cost savings for tax payers. The MOE could save significant expenses by keeping most low-enrolment schools open and sharing use with appropriate community agencies. Communities would get to keep their neighbourhood schools, community agencies would find appropriate accommodation at affordable rates and school boards would earn rental income.
