7 Maree eS Ee rrre 3 ae IRINA REM TIERS UTE A PEAT ECL LEIS ROD AL PITA ES Sf STi IRB Mt Fc AEN NEAT SEOGOTESS ALERT OT LOI TORE IED i valet oy fat erin arene | miata x Marth Vaacowves, B.C, VM 214 REMEMBER WHEN THE ONLY | HEEERR EY E WAS SHOVELLING . THING GLEN CLARK AS Art is pemonanenr ate rnin PETER SPEGK Publisher 985-2131 (101) Doug Foct ./ Chris Johnson Comptrotier 4 985-2131 (133) 965-2131 (166) Managing Editor 985-2131 (116) ‘lptay Re sata Fan Swereroone Fax Accsumtiay & Main (ition Fex Marts Baere Mews, founded in 1960 ui an” +, fedependent suburban newspaper and qualified wander Schedule 111, Paregraph 111 of the . Eacise Tax Act, ia published each Wednesday, . Friday and Sanday by Nowth Shore Fre fas Ltd. and distributed to every drot on the North Shore, Canada Post Canadian Publications Mei] Sales Product Agresment No. 0087238. Mailing rates available on request. Entire contents © 1996 North Shore _ Free Press Utd. Alt rights reserved. Operations Manager / OFF THE BACK OF A TRUCK PROMISES (04 | FePROMISES ‘ps if 65 rs SAND MORE PROMISES qlz | EROS we ZS 4 Led = news viewpoint _ OUR EDUCATION dollar is about to be devalued. Again. And the real losers a in this academic fiscal struggle will be those who can afford the devaluation least. Instead of responding to demands from parents and B.C. education system users for more dollar value from the system, the public school education monopoly — deaf and dumb at the best cf times — has decided to do the opposite and provide jess. Next year, the province’s students will be shortchanged again and get 187 days of instruction instead of the already paltry 188 they were supposed to get. A change in the ‘school calendar gives unionized teachers. another non-instructional day -— bringing the total of so-called professional days to six. This lamentable boondoggle worked out with the B.C. Teachers Federation comes in the midst of the union’s $1.6 million advertis- 9 0¢ a & ing campaign launched to reassure parents that all is well on the local education front and to perpetuate the fraud that the welfare of the children is priority No. 1. . But enough self-serving union propaganda. The BCTF is all about promoting the wel- fare of its membership and’ maintaining its education monopoly; the public education monopoly, meanwhile, is all‘about pandering tothe lowest common denominator. Neither does the system’s customers any good. A school year that has far fewer instruc- of tional days than comparative school years in | Japan, Germany and other. keenly competi- tive countries is only one factor in the whole education equation. Parents and students need real choice in education to realize the best value for their education dollars. They don’t have it under essential Dear Editor: Regarding your ongoing “Tax Tales” on the editorial page, the North Shore News demonstrates once again its small-town, — small-minded thinking. By selectively quoting from a National Citizens’ Coalition | publication regarding govern-” ment spending on the arts,. | Tales from the Tax Trough Ul. | you seem to imply that govern- | ment arts rants are a waste of ‘| taxpayers’ money. Unfortunately, this displays a fundamental misunderstand- ing of the role of art ‘in society; Re artists, unlike entertainers, cannot be forced to “succeed in the marketplace” (as_you suggest in the Feb. 23 edition), : because art, unlike entertain- ment, cannot be market driven. ” If your editorial writer has - ever travelled beyond Vancou-’.. ver, he or she would recognize’. § that true art is timeless, and is “got created for society, but-- f about society. Unfortunately, - our. current. f. society no longer has’ the | . patrons that previous genera-.. {°° tions once had, which allowed composers, painters, sculptors and other artists to devote thei time to. conceiving’ and ‘con- structing their art; as, such, today’s artists must look to government for funding d creative periods. - Forcing an artist to cater to the demands of the m ub- lic will ‘only. hinder’ the. ation , of: truly’ relevant. and meaningful _ artwork, ©; opposed | to, mere emtertail ment, In today's, ‘atmosphere ‘of new . fiscal responsibilit which, on the face of it, is an attempt to. preserve: the future for our..children, we must .. “SPEED IS killing us,* warn Noel the road safety ads — a slo- gan it would be well for the NDP to heed in its squeeze on school districts. ; Nowhere is that truer than on the North Shore. But first, in order to be scrupulously fair to everyone, a quick took at the background. Our temporary tax-"n-spend . NDP masters — who've added a cool $10 billion to B.C.’s debt. in the past four and a half years — are now in a tizzy because the feds are cutting this year’s transfer payments for education and health by a nasty $450 million. So they decided one place where they could save a few bucks with nobody hollering too loudly was the B.C. school system, with its 75 schoo! districts, Slash that number in half, save $30 million through administrative economies of scale and funding cuts for special needs students, and bingo, we've solved 7% of the federal cut- back problem. Although it still leaves 93% of the problem untouched, reducing the number of school dis- tricts can, in certain cases, make sense. In south Okanagan, for example, the proposed amalgama- tion of five school districts into a single one is supported in principle by a number of teacher associations. They point to the area’s good trans- portation links, criticize top-heavy administration ’ and welcome the chance of more bucks for the classroom. But even in south Okanagan there's stiff cpposition to two aspects of arhalgamation: special needs funding cuts'(a total of $10 million out of the $30 mil- lion to be saved); and the speed of amalgamation — Victoria wants the 75 districts shrunk to approximately 37 by October. If ever there was a case for and yor avoiding overly hasty action, it's that of the two North Shore school districts earmarked for a shotgun wed- ding. Their totally different cultures promise only disaster from such a match, unless the dominant partner undergoes radical therapy. West Van School District, like a virtuous maiden, ended its last fiscal year year with a $1.1 million budget surplus. It enjoys great parent participation (volunteer moms act as crossing guards) and open boundaries, so that parents can have a choice of schools. North Van School District — as distinct from some of its schools, which rank among the best in B.C. — is an overweight, union-driven slob that’s gone $5 million in the glue and recently had its entire school board fired by the education minister for gross financial incompetence. Its fans moan that it has been continually under- funded by Victoria. The latter retorts that a mere 1% belt-tightening over the past five years or so the current system, and that has to change. would have avoided all today " spies a Maybe a single North "Shore school district could eventually be viable and rewatding for all’ concerned, But six months is far too litte time to solve all the problems arid arrive at a sound deci- es sion. In even less time, of Course, our speed- crazy NDP governiment may be gone. Their ‘stic- cessors may have far better ideas ‘on how to save a mere $30 million. Locally, that could be the: best solution of all. : aee MANY HAPPY retuins of tomorrow, ‘Mach 28, to Mount Seymour Lion Dave Elphick .;, Warm anniversary greetings that same day to ‘former ‘ West Van mayor Derrick Huny andhis), = - wife Margaret ... And more happy birthday wish- es Friday, March 29, to West Van's Terry Jacks. , WRIGHT OR WRONG: Life is not a plate to empty, but a bow! to fill. tax tales MORE GOVERNMENT waste from the files of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council: @ $44,000 to study “The social construction of | feminist meanings”; 2 $35,000 for a study on “Craft industries in post.’ medieval Iran”; @ $20,000 to examine “The ecclesiastical courts in 19th century England.” — From Tales from the Tax Trough Uiea National 7 Citizens’ Coalition publication, ;