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OUR VIEW: Forcing Surrey to pay while giving other school districts free ride is ludicrous

Why is Surrey's school district required to fund our capital projects by 25 per cent while other districts contribute little or no funding?
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Surrey school trustee Terry Allen

Ready for a dose of nonsense, courtesy of our provincial government?

School trustee Terry Allen put forward a motion at last week’s board meeting to “request an immediate meeting with the Minister of Education to explain why the Surrey School District is required to fund our capital projects by 25 per cent while other districts contribute little or no funding.”

Good question, Terry. We’d like to know the answer, too.

He’s referring to Premier Christy Clark’s recent funding announcement for a New Westminster secondary school project (in the neighbourhood of $100 million, just like Surrey’s recent funding grab).

The difference? New West’s project is fully funded by the province, while Surrey is forced to cough up about $25 million.

Huh?

Let’s get this straight.

The province is handing over $100 million to New Westminster but here in overcrowded Surrey, the funds are contingent on an already stretched school budget somehow finding another $25 million?

If this makes any sense to you at all, please let us know, because we’re scratching our heads trying to understand the logic.

The Now