This Afternoon In Clarkland: The Forced Closing Of Schools...

...What's In A Number?

Or, to be more precise, what's in that '95%' capacity number that the Clarklandians are insisting upon before they will spend commit money to saving kids from death and/or dismemberment by earthquake?

As Tracey Sherlock reported recently in the Vancouver Sun, essentially nothing.

Here is her lede and a bit more (to include a pathetic response from the Clarklandian Ministry of (Anti-Public) Education:

The B.C. ministry of education is forcing the province’s school districts to have their schools 95-per-cent full before they can get funding for seismic upgrades. But next door in Alberta, the Calgary district is working on a plan to reduce its capacity, from the current level of 85 per cent, down to 80 per cent.

The Calgary Board of Education just approved a three-year capital plan asking for 20 new schools and 13 major upgrades. The objective of the plan is to get schools back to just 80 per cent utilization.

“The Calgary Board of Education has a recommended school utilization rate of 80 per cent,” said Joanne Anderson, the board’s media relations representative. “As a whole, the … system utilization rate is 86 per cent, and more than one-third of schools are over 90 per cent. By freeing up space, schools have more flexible learning spaces and can maintain other learning spaces such as music and art rooms and a school learning commons (library).”

In Vancouver, the board is looking at closing as many as 21 schools to get to a 95-per-cent utilization rate, as mandated by the ministry of education, and required before schools will be upgraded for earthquake safety...

{snip}

...When presented with the information from Alberta, the B.C. ministry of education said it all comes down to the budget.

“District-wide utilization rates are a key tool in making sure we deliver the best possible education for our students while ensuring value for taxpayers,” the ministry said in a statement. “Taxpayers want districts to make the best use of existing facilities before we invest millions of their tax dollars in new schools...


So.

There you have it - no justification of the 95% number and the raising of the false flag of 'new schools' rather than seismic upgrading by the Clarklandian Ministry concerned.

My take?

Kids are being used as hostages to force the closing of public schools on a massive scale for no good (or even defensible) reason whatsoever.


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