I’ve been a bit out of touch recently with holidays, so I’m catching up on the BC teachers situation and what looks like an attempt by the BC Government to destroy public education.

This week the Minister launched a website giving “some of the options available to you”. So what are my options? No public school system? Let’s try private school. Here’s a preliminary search.

My daughters are aged 8 and 10 and enjoy an excellent education in the public school system in French Immersion in North Vancouver, despite the Government. I also consider the school an excellent part of the local community.

Any schooling would ideally be in French and must definitely be non-religious in nature. In North and West Vancouver there are the following private schools and costs to us:

• Lions Gate Christian Academy: “Moral & Spiritual Development from a Christian Perspective”. Cost: $8,720. Distance: 3.8km. French Immersion: No.
• Brockton School: “a rigorous academic education is balanced by arts and athletics in an environment where merit rather than materialism is the core value”. Cost: $29,700. Distance: 10.8km. French Immersion: No.
• Collingwood School: “Preparing people to thrive in meaningful lives”. Cost: Not stated. Distance: 19.2km. French Immersion: No.
• Mulgrave School: “a caring and supportive school community with high expectations and high levels of achievement”. Cost: $35,940. Distance: 20.3km. French Immersion: No.
• Ecole Francaise Internationale de Vancouver: “where critical thought processes and inter-cultural communication are the determining factors”. Cost: $28,500. Distance: 10.4km. French Immersion: Yes.
• The Vancouver Waldorf School: “educating hearts and minds”. Cost: $28,240. Distance: 9.3km. French Immersion: No.

The highly questionable (if not laughable) Fraser Institute ranking ranks only a couple of these schools. Sherwood Park being just below the average and the West Vancouver schools Mulgrave and Collingwood well above the average.

Note that although I searched for schools on the North Shore, none of these are “local” and we would suffer a disconnect from our local community. Only one provides French Immersion. Lions Gate Christian Academy is definitely not going to happen.

Supposing I can get my children into one of these schools, it would drain my families resources by somewhere from $28k to $36k at the minimum. The median total income before tax in BC is $71k (source), after tax of 40%, let’s say $43k. One of those private schools would consume 65% to 83% of the average after tax income.

As an extra kicker, since my wife is a teacher in the public school system, we have less money this year.

Do you have some realistic options for my family?