Education: Fees fight may mean more cuts
Langley Advance - published on 11/03/2006
by Matthew Claxton

The next funding fight between the school board and Victoria is already heating up.

The Langley School District could face budget cuts of $1.5 million to $2.5 million as a result of a court decision on school fees.

An analysis of the impact a loss of school fees will have on the district will be presented at November's school board meeting, said board chair Steve Burton.

The exact dollar figure is unknown, and each school is still going over its programs and counting up the impact the loss of fees will have, Burton said.

The change is a result of a B.C. Supreme Court decision at the beginning of October.

The court ruled that it was illegal to charge students in the public system for the materials they need to complete the course.

The ban only applies to trips, materials and costs required to complete a graded course. Extra-curricular programs which do not have grades attached will not be affected.

The biggest percentage of the fees in the Langley district go towards band programs, Burton said.

He said there is no indication that the Ministry of Education is going to send extra money to help boards make up for the shortfall.

Burton expects band and fine arts programs will be the first to face the axe if the cash can't be found.

"We simply do not have $1.5 million, so something's got to give," he said.