Dear Editor,
Re: “Parents are spoiled brats,” Letters, Oct.28
I was very disappointed to read an ill-informed and disrespectful letter in your paper recently, criticizing a previous letter from a parent at my school, Dixon elementary.
School closures are a complex process, looking at many different factors, a reality that the Dixon parent referenced in her letter by raising a number of concerns about the recommendation to close our school.
Walk-times were referenced by parents because the district had indicated to us that it was a key consideration in their recommendation, and many parents felt that the 15-minute walk time estimates were not realistic for small children.
That the author would compare their experience in junior high school as a 13-16 year old, to what is a reasonable walk for children as young as five is ridiculous, and indicates to me that they are not the parent of school age children.
If they had children in the public school system, then they would be better informed about the challenging situation in our schools today.
The experience today is not what it was when the letter writer was in school in the ‘90s.
Six Richmond schools have closed already since 2001, and the district has had to cut the operating budget for 14 straight years.
My son had to share math textbooks for many years because there were not enough in his school.
Water fountains at a number of district schools are currently shut down because of lead from the pipes leaching in to the drinking water.
Students who need education assistants can’t get them, or wait years for the evaluations to quality for one.
Parent fundraising pays for far too many items that are necessities, not extras.
Seven-thousand students in our district go to class each day in buildings that would fail in a major earthquake.
Yet local MLAs, such as John Yap, continue to state that the system is adequately funded.
Why should you care? A strong public education system prepares students to become good citizens and taxpayers who will pay for our pensions and medical system as we age.
Under-funding it and cramming students in to mega elementary schools negatively impacts learning and risks our future prosperity.
If the letter writer had actually read the letter they criticized, they would have seen that the very first point made by the parent at my school is that Dixon is more than viable — it is fully enrolled, and expected to be full or over capacity well in to the future — which is why so many of us questioned the recommendation to close it.
Rather than a waste, schools such as Dixon are some of the best use of your tax dollars.
Instead of slinging mud at parents going through a very stressful situation and who are giving up their time to advocate for a strong public system that benefits us all, I suggest the letter writer better inform themselves on the true state of public education in B.C. and join the growing chorus of Richmond residents advocating for urgently-needed seismic upgrades and improvements to operating grants.
Lisa Fisher
Co-chair
Dixon Elementary PAC
