Education is Important!

Letter to the Editor of the Daily Courier: Re: School Trustee Election

Leafing through the first section of the Daily Courier Tuesday morning my suspicions were confirmed. The Courier is trying to keep the School Trustee election a secret!

We had our one and only forum Monday night at Hollywood Road Educational Services in front of a rousing and raucous crowd of about 900 people. (That sentence was just to get your attention.) Actually there were about 90 intelligent, well-behaved people, including 13 candidates who spoke.

Many common issues like underfunding, literacy and graduation rates, and transportation concerns were brought up. But interestingly, many of the candidates mentioned the despicable lack of coverage in the media about the School Trustee election, including me.

I fully understand the need for any newspaper to sell newspapers. And I’m sure newspapers do a pretty good job of reading the public as to what they want to read about. So I don’t really blame the Daily Courier that much. However, I think they could help with the understanding that Education (capital “E”) really is important in our society.

A plank in many of the City Council candidates’ platforms has been to address homelessness. I’m sure it has occurred to most people that probably all, or at least a vast majority, of our homeless and street people went to school! We, in Education, are addressing homelessness and poverty right now in our schools, everyday! We are raising our graduation rates. We are raising the graduation rates of Aboriginals. We are, in fact, doing everything we can to keep as many people as possible away from homelessness and poverty. This is happening as you read this, right now.

Here are few interesting facts: School District 23’s operating budget is around $180 to $190 Million per year. The City of Kelowna’s operating budget is around $96 Million. SD 23 employs about 3 times as many people as does the City of Kelowna. School District 23 is the second largest employer in the Okanagan Valley, second only to Interior Health.

With the above in mind, I beseech our public to give Education a very sober second look. We are important. Our only real drawback is that our goals are long-term and the results not quite as tangible as bricks and mortar projects.

Please go to http://www.kelowna.ca/CM/Page3557.aspx or just Google “City of Kelowna” and find your way to the Trustee page. Please take a few moments and read through all of the candidates and give them all a fair shake. Remember, Education really is the cornerstone of our society.

Richard Knight