If anyone doubts the imminent demise of the emergence of a province-wide all-day kindergarten programme in BC in the near future, think again.
The emergence of an apparently insatiable Olympic appetite for taxpayer money coupled with the recent release of several bogus Olympic budgets, points to not just a postponement but the demise of key education initiatives, among them universal all-day kindergarten.
To think otherwise flies in the face of reality.
It’s not just the rushed January convening of a special session of the BC provincial legislature to bail out the billion dollar Olympic Village boondoggle, but the upcoming gathering storm around the hidden Olympic security budget that could top a billion dollars, eliminating any pretense of the availability of funds from Victoria for essential early childhood programmes.
Ironically, the Vancouver Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee have excluded the highly regarded humanitarian organization Right to Play from operating from the Vancouver Olympic Village site as it has in previous Olympics. Right to Play uses sports and play programmes to improve health, develop life skills and foster peace for children and communities in some of the world’s most disadvantaged countries.
On top of the Olympic Village’s potentially heavy debt, the exclusion of Right to Play further tarnishes the iconic status of this controversial site.
However, it was the late January front-page analysis by the Vancouver Sun pegging the overall Olympic debt at a massive $6 billion (and counting!), that puts paid to any remaining hope for the implementation of universal all-day kindergarten in all of BC’s 59 school districts in the near future.
Shamefully, it has now emerged that both Canadian and BC taxpayers have been either hoodwinked or lied to — in this case, both — by politicians at all levels (municipal, provincial, and federal) in the lead up to next year’s much ballyhooed Olympic sports extravaganza.
For the past three years provincial politicians have shamelessly promised action on the early childhood file. There has been no let up on the hype and spin from the Ministry of Education on this topic.
Parents were told we would have “great early childhood programmes in BC. Make no mistake: they will be some of the best in Canada.” The provincial government pleaded that it needed a little more time to “get it right,” and then, as our education minister boasted, “we are going to lead the way!”
The BC Liberals’ 2007 speech from the throne belatedly conceded that “currently approximately 25% of children (in BC) are not ready to learn when they enter kindergarten.”
Vague and over-the-top promises followed this speech, such as BC Education Minister Shirley Bond’s assertion that by the year 2012, BC will have, “pre-kindergarten classes for 3-year-olds” when at the same time the prospects for all-day kindergarten for 5-year-olds, as the minister well knew, were rapidly disappearing over BC’s financial horizon.
However, that did not prevent Bond from claiming that currently, “BC leads the country in early childhood education” when in reality, according to most analysts, BC is close to being dead last.

Continue reading Insatiable Olympic Budget Puts Paid To All-Day Kindergarten In BC
by Noel Herron, retired school principal / former Vancouver school trustee →

The U.S. Capitol inaugural stage where Barack Obama will be sworn in as the 44th President of the United States, at 9 a.m. Pacific time, Tuesday, January 20 2009, an historic day

On the threshold of change, at 9 a.m. Pacific Time on Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 history will be made on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, as President-elect Barack Obama will take the oath of office as America’s 44th President. Placing his left hand on the Bible that Abraham Lincoln used when he took the same oath in 1861, Obama will usher in an era of change.
The special significance of Barack Obama’s inauguration, as America’s first black president, will also be a moment for reflection and celebration. On a long weekend in the U.S. already commemorating the 80th birthday of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., Americans of all colours will converge on their nation’s capital in unprecedented numbers to bear witness to this latest step in the struggle toward racial equality, as we here in Canada will witness from afar this most historic political event.
In his remarks at the Lincoln Memorial on Sunday, Mr. Obama himself sought to place this moment in the sweep of history …

“In the course of our history, only a handful of generations have been asked to confront challenges as serious as the ones we face right now,” he said. “Our nation is at war. Our economy is in crisis. Millions of Americans are losing their jobs and their homes. But despite all of this — despite the enormity of the task that lies ahead — I stand here today as hopeful as ever that the United States of America will endure, that the dream of our founders will live on in our time.”

For one day at least, and however irrationally, relief will replace fear, and gloom will be swept aside by a vast tide of hope. The dream set out 45 years ago by Martin Luther King on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial — at the opposite end of the Washington Mall from where Mr. Obama will speak, may not have been entirely realized — the colour of a person’s skin still does matter in America — but how far America seems to have come.