BURSTCentreBC leader Elenore Sturko said, during a visit to Langley on Friday, Oct. 16, that her party would provide permanent spaces for 25,000 more students in B.C. public schools.
She said the new classroom spaces will be in place by 2031, with the districts with the most portables and fastest growth targeted first.
“We’ll keep class size and class composition limits in teachers contacts and fund them fully,” Sturko said.
Among her promises was to bring back letter grades for students from Grade 4 and up, to give a clear picture of student progress to parents.
She also promised to add 1,500 education assistants to B.C. classrooms, fund behaviour support teams in every district, and bring in 350 child- and youth-care workers and behaviour specialists.
Sturko also said school food programs would expand to 40 per cent of B.C. students by 2030.
The CentreBC leader also pledged more school counsellors, and extending early reading screening-style programs to math as well.
She said her party could pay for their educational plan while returning the province’s books to balance.
“Unlike the other parties, we actually have a path to balance in two terms,” she said, calling the incumbent NDP government’s deficit spending a “payday loan.”
Joining Sturko Friday were four of her regional candidates – Kyle Stevenson from Langley-Walnut Grove, Parm Bhandol from Surrey North, Paul Brar from Surrey-Fleetwood, and Sargy Chima from Surrey-Cloverdale.
Langley and Surrey have seen rapid growth of young families, and have disproportionately seen portable classrooms sprout up outside schools.
Asked if she would continue the NDP’s policy of building modular school additions to replace portables, Sturko said that she would, and in fact using pre-fabricated and modular construction was included in multiple parts of the CentreBC platform. It would also apply to housing and other needed building types.
NDP leader David Eby was in Langley on Thursday to rally the troops, and BC Conservative leader Lorne Doerkson was in town a few weeks back promising to cut PST on Canadian liquor.