BC Conservative Party leader John Cummins pledged four years of stabilized funding and greater input from parents in B.C.'s education system during a provincial election campaign stop in Richmond Thursday afternoon.
"We want to see some stability in the system so teachers can be confident that the system is there to support them, and at the same time allow parents to have a say," Cummins told a gathering of reporters outside Burnett Secondary school.
"We need to make sure that the schools and parents are working together for the betterment of the students," added Cummins, who who served as a Reform and then Conservative Party MP in the riding of Delta-Richmond East and Delta-South Richmond from 1993 to 2011.
For the May 14 B.C. election, Cummins is running in the riding of Langley.
Cummins said that for too long parents have been left out of the classroom, and vowed to work with teachers to separate "the legitimate wage and benefit demands from classroom concerns."
"The issues of the classroom should not be left or addressed simply on a province-wide basis," he said. "These concerns should be addressed locally and there should be input from parent advisory committees."
On the stabilization of funding, Cummins said it would better allow planning efforts.
Cummins called the moves "getting back to the basics of education."
