Socreds’ < underlies school §

record

board elections

“The right wing wants to make fundamentalism — back to the bas-

_ ls — into the main issue in the elec- tion,

_._ ‘But the real issue is the provin- Clal government’s lack of support Or the education system. That is the issue which candidates must de- Clare themselves on.”’

The real issue, the quality and 8eneral standard of education is What voters ultimately will respond ‘0 when they go to the polls, Co- quitlam school trustee Eunice Par-

€f says with confidence, and those Standards are set chiefly by the bud-

LORRAINE HOCKING...the op- Position on right wing Rich- Mond school board.

8et dictates of the provincial gov- ment. In 1972 the province paid Per cent of education costs; last

Year it was only 46 per cent.

._ Last year they told us that a

Proposition, 13’ style tax revolt was

Imminent in B.C.,”’ she said. “And

€ demand was on to cut taxes and

Cut back education. But the election didn’t bear that out. People showed ‘ at they. want to maintain educa- ‘nal standards.”?

Wiromerent version, but essential- tbat, same, demand for cutting ed- this 10n spending: is being pressed 3 feenens only now it is tied to de-

a Mg enrolment and the funda-

Ntalist movement. €y both come back to the same

Question, Parker says, ‘‘the level of

8 : UPPort given to the system by the.

Ministry of education.”’ aie education minister Pat in ee has been more than subtle thet Statements that school dis- $ Should close schools because bach ening enrolment. And the Digans Riiesbasics movement €ss electives, less options

for students, and less teachers — just what McGeer wants,”’ she says.

With the support of McGeer, the right wing will have some impact in the elections, Parker predicts, but it won’t necessarily go their way this year any more than in the last elec- tion.

Her own race in Coquitlam is an example where the possible closure of schools has become the chief election issue. Coquitlam has suf- fered a drop of 4,000 in elementary school enrolment this year, and an administration report is recom- mending that accommodation for 1,200 be closed. That could be the equivalent of four entire schools.

The response from the public, however, has been just the opposite than that from McGeer. A public meeting in early October drew more ‘than 500 on the ‘issue, and since then 28 written briefs and submis- sions have come to the board — and there is an almost unanimous de- mand to keep the schools open.

“Closing the schools would re- duce taxes by .37 mills, about $3.50 per year on the average, and people are saying, ‘so what,’ ’’ she ex- plained.

Her response to the excess space and fewer students expected next year is the suggestion that the pupil/teacher ratio should be lower- ed by another half a point.

Parker and her running mate with the Association of Coquitlam Electors (ACE), Lorna Morford, could very likely take both of the open seats on the Coquitlam school board. A trustee for seven of the past eight years, Parker headed the poll two years ago, and Morford, president of ACE, was runner-up a year ago, and won’t be facing an in- cumbent this year.

But Parker, an executive member of the B.C. School Trustees Asso- ciation, warns against minimizing the danger posed by the right-wing attack on the education system. “Progressive education has been destroyed in many parts of the United States, and it could happen heres?

Much of the ultra-right move-

ment in education emanates from _

Langley, she said, where funda- mentalists have firm control over the local Board and have caused deep divisions in the school system and the community over their at- tempt to establish an alternative

school system rigidly structured along ‘‘Judeo-Christian values.’’ A newly-formed citizens group is giv- ing the Langley board a stiff con- test, and some changes could be in the cards.

In North Vancouver, fundament- alists are running a very noisy cam- paign to wipe out the incumbents from the District board. A so-called ‘‘committee of concerned citizens,’’ based on the Socred organization on the North Shore, has moved from demands for tax cuts to typi-

cally emotional issues of course

content, the latest being a program in the schools to combat racism and prejudice.

A broad-based citizens group, the North Vancouver Voters Associa- tion (NOVA) has formed in re- sponse to the campaign, and has en- dorsed the two incumbents on the district board, Frank Worburten

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Parker at municipal hall as nominations close...a tion system, she is expected to win handily in the November $7 vote in Coquitlam.

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and V. Smelowski.

In Richmond, a similar brand of right-wing fundamentalism domi- nates the school board, but it could lose ground to progressives in this election.

For the past two years the opposi- tion on the board has come from the Richmond Electors’ Action League’s (REAL) Lorraine Hock- ing. Most of the time Hocking has had trouble even garnering a sec- onder for any motion of substance from the right-wing block opposing her.

Hocking is REAL’s only candi- date, but she may be joined on the new board by one or more of the five school board candidates of the Richmond Independent New Dem- ocrats (RIND).

Richmond school district doesn’t have declining enrolment, Hocking points out, and it puts the lie to the

Swann acclaimed in Alberni |

leading spokesperson for progressives in the educa-

— Fred Wilson photo

Socred’s blanket policy of cost cut- ting. Major areas of the District have rapidly increasing enrolment which has forced the board to make extensive use of ‘portable class- rooms. Meanwhile, the Socreds have cut the District’s $15 million capital -budget to just $3 million not enough to make any serious ap- proach to the problem of lack of school space.

The other major contest in the Lower Mainland is in Burnaby where the labor-backed Burnaby Citizens Association hope to regain control of the board from thé right- wing Burnaby Voters Association.

Leading the BCA campaign are incumbents Elsie Dean and Barry Jones, but the BCA’s third trustee, June Williams, won’t be running this time. (A closer look at the cam- paign in Burnaby will be carried in next week’s Tribune.)

Labor in 15 civic contests

With only two weeks of intensive campaigning before the November 17 election day, labor-backed, pro- gressive candidates are challenging in at least 15 cities, districts, towns and villages throughout B.C.

The key contest on Vancouver Island will be in Port Alberni where the labor movement is attempting to regain a position of strength on municipal council. Leading the campaign in Alberni will be alder- ‘man George McKnight, expected to finish near or at the top of the polls again. Along with McKnight, the Alberni Labor Council has endors- ed Bill Young, president of CUPE in Alberni, and Len Nelson, a mill worker and executive member of

the Canadian Paperworkers Union, for council seats.

In school board elections, labor scored a breakthrough with the ac- clamation of Gary Swann .o a two- year seat, restoring labor’s presence on the board which had been miss- ing since the retirement of Mark Mosher. Swann was the Communist Party candidate in Alberni in the last provincial election.

In Victoria, Victoria Labor Council secretary Larry Ryan will be stepping down from his alder- manic seat after seven years, but labor council president John Shields will attempt to maintain labor’s seat on the council. NDP researcher Gretchin Brewin will also have labor support in her bid for a aldermanic seat.

In Alert Bay, Gilbert Popovich was returned unchallenged to the mayor’s office when nominations closed. A member of the United Fishermen and Allied Workers’ Union, it will be Popovich’s third consecutive term as mayor of the

_ working class fishing community.

Upcoast, United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union northern organizer Mike Darnel has been nominated to challenge for a one year aldermanic seat on the- Prince Rupert city council. Backed by an ad hoc trade union committee, Darnel is campaigning on a pro- gram to bring jobs to Rupert through the establishment of secon- dary industry, and to build an In- dian Cultural’ Centre to serve the needs of the area’s 40 per cent Native population.

Labor candidates are contending in two interior cities, Vernon and Trail. Vernon and District Labor Council secretary Bert Nilsson is trying for a second time to nail down an aldermanic seat on Vernon

- council, and is expected to finish

strongly.

MIKE DARNEL...UFAWU organizer challenges for Rupert council seat.

In Trail, smelterworker and United Steelworkers’ executive member Elmer Pontius is running for council to give the labor move- ment a toe hold on that city’s right wing local government.

In the Lower Mainland, pro- gressive candidates include Ed Widmer and Marjorie Houghton in Maple Ridge, each vying for alder- manic positions; aldermanic candi_ date Jim Ormerod in White Rock: the Association of Coquitlam Elect- or’s Larry Whaley, trying for a council spot in Coquitlam; shipyard worker and tenant activist Ernie Crist in North Vancouver District, who is challenging for an alder- manic seat; and IWA official Bruce Elphinstone is seeking a seat on the New Westminster city council.

The New Westminster and Van- couver Labor Councils: have en- dorsed the full slate of the Surrey Alternative Movement (SAM), the Burnaby Citizens Associations (BCA), and Richmond Independent New Democrats in their respective races.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—NOVEMBER 2, 1979— Page 3

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