It appears that Dr. Tim Walters (Observer letter March 14) is misinformed regarding the details of K-12 budgeting. If he had bothered to check SD #83’s 2010 financial statements, freely available online, he would discover that funding continues to be liberal, perhaps even lavish, when viewed from an international perspective.
Examples include the 227 employees of SD #83 who received a salary of more than $75,000 totalling over $19 million out of the $63 million budget. Salaries of substitute teachers were $2 million, support staff $6 million, educational assistants $4 million, and the teachers (earning less than $75,000) $12 million. These figures do not include the generous employee benefit package of almost $10 million. Furthermore, taxpayers contribute over $540,000 to staff expense accounts, $910,000 to professional development and travel, as well as $890,000 to the BCTF.
Dr. Walters and fellow faculty members at Okanagan College are entitled to their opinion, but an argument without reference to, or in defiance of, the facts serves no purpose.
Indeed, his lofty overview will only cause moans and groans for the majority of informed people working in the private sector – who, after all, are the folks who generate most of the taxes which provide Dr. Walters and his colleagues a comparatively privileged lifestyle.
Tony Lewis