Abolish School Boards

To Lions Bay News   Oct 26/08

I’m running for the position of school board trustee in West Van, Bowen Island and Lions Bay for one main reason:  I want to promote the cause of parent involvement in schools. 

Since my daughters were young, I have worked hard to advocate for parents to be in charge of their children’s upbringing and education.  There are very strong reasons why parents should be meaningfully involved and not leave child care or education to others who call themselves experts. 

I am now a grandparent and have seen the steady growth of central office administrations at the expense of local schools. 

It is very easy to relinquish our freedoms, rights and duties to others and over the years this has become such a norm that we, as parents and citizens are losing our independence and increasingly becoming dependent on government.  This is particularly bad in government public schools where parents have very little say in their schools.

School Boards do not make it easy for parents to be involved as they see themselves as being in charge.  There are few opportunities for parents and students to have a voice in quality or achievement goals.  Boards, however, seem to enjoy parents as fund-raisers and organizers of events in the schools.

What I would like to see happen is that each school become autonomous, with a governing board consisting of parents and teachers (including principal teacher). You don’t need distant superintendents, administrators, curriculum developers, bureaucrats, and trustees involved. 

In a place like Lions Bay I’m sure this could be done.

If we abolished the School Board, as I believe we should, we would achieve considerable savings.  These could be applied, perhaps to the tune of $1,000-$2,000 extra per student, or dedicated for special needs.  For more on my views on this topic, visit my website:  http://abolish-school-boards.org.

I do hope the citizens in Lions Bay seriously consider the idea of school autonomy for the near future.

Best wishes,

Tunya Audain