Education Policy
-
Reframing the crisis: a summary of Parker’s critique of neoliberalism in education
In her 2022 article for Critical Education, Parker examines the deep entanglement between neoliberal economic ideology and the governance of public education in Canada. She argues that this ideological framework, which privileges market logic,…
-
BC schools: the highway to prison and suicide
This is not a pipeline. It is a conveyor belt greased with neglect. Children are vanishing from classrooms and showing up in courtrooms because of what they learned at school. They learned that they…
-
Why the benefits of split-grade classrooms collapse under austerity
Differentiated instruction, student-centred pacing, and inclusive classroom strategies are frequently celebrated as hallmarks of modern pedagogy. In their 2022 article for Academic Matters, UBC faculty Siobhán McPhee and Michael Jerowsky describe flexible teaching models…
-
When budget decisions shape classroom design, pedagogy becomes a casualty
While proponents of blended classrooms may cite research suggesting positive academic or social outcomes, we must ask—positive for whom, and at what cost? The data may reflect aggregate gains, but it rarely disaggregates…
-
Public school districts often claim they are woefully underfunded while simultaneously sitting on enormous real estate portfolios.
For example, the Vancouver School Board (VSB) owns 223 properties assessed at over $9.5 billion, including not only school buildings but also apartments, a shopping mall, daycare sites, and more reddit.com. Yet the district regularly faces…
-
Reversing the decline of inclusion in BC’s schools
In earlier years, BC school districts made earnest efforts to improve accessibility and inclusion for students with disabilities. However, as funding pressures mounted, many districts began viewing supports and accommodations as costs to mitigate rather…
-
Scope of budget cuts USA vs BC
There are many ways to dismantle public education. Some leaders do it slowly, through attrition and austerity, with spreadsheets that flatten need into numbers. Others do it suddenly, with executive orders and mass…
-
From Trump’s education cuts to BC’s funding shifts: a comparative analysis
When a government says it wants to make education more efficient, it rarely means more just. The language of improvement—streamlining, restoring greatness, rebalancing budgets—is often the first sign that something vital is about…
-
Debility is the design: How engineered scarcity punishes complex children in BC schools
In British Columbia, families are told that public education is inclusive, progressive, and governed by principles of equity. But for thousands of disabled children, school is a place of attrition—where support is delayed…
-
What does school funding have to do with collective punishment? Everything.
The phrase collective punishment might conjure images of authoritarian regimes or military retaliation—of innocent people punished for the actions of others, held accountable as a group rather than as individuals with rights, histories, and specific…
