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Letter: school funding will hurt the economy

The Surrey Board of Trade’s “Education Today, Productivity Tomorrow” campaign, including the City of Surrey, the Surrey School District, Kwantlen Polytechnic University and Simon Fraser University, is concerned that inadequate education funding for Surrey may result in negative and long-term economic and social impacts on this region.

To the editor;

The Surrey Board of Trade’s “Education Today, Productivity Tomorrow” campaign, including the City of Surrey, the Surrey School District, Kwantlen Polytechnic University and Simon Fraser University, is concerned that inadequate education funding for Surrey may result in negative and long-term economic and social impacts on this region.

Due to the dramatic population increases, which continue, there are enormous pressures on schools and post-secondary institutions.

Kindergarten to Grade 12 needs $273 million for school construction to house the 7,000 students currently in portables (which could rise by as many as 5,000 in five years), and Simon Fraser and Kwantlen have half the post-secondary seats, per capita, in Surrey and the South Fraser, compared to the rest of the province.

Kwantlen is funded at the lowest rate per student of any university in B.C.

We agree money is hard to find, but the future consequences of not responding to these education funding shortfalls will impact our economic well-being, and force our youth and mature students to go elsewhere to learn, or worse still, not go on at all.

We cannot afford that either.

Please speak to your MLA.

 

Anita Huberman, CEO

Surrey Board of Trade

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