Telegraph Journal Article May 22, 2009

Mothers want school transportation cuts reversed

FREDERICTON - Two Bathurst mothers who lost their sons in the crash of a school van, along with the union representing school bus drivers, are calling on Education Minister Kelly Lamrock to reverse cuts to his department's transportation budget.

"The Department of Education is going in the wrong direction," Delalene Harris Foran, the head of Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 1253, said Thursday.
read full story
http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/search/article/675283


May 30, 2009
Letter To The Editor by Delalene Harris Foran,
Provincial President, CUPE Local 1253

Department of Education Can Afford to Fund Extra-Curricular Trips
I want to comment on the article “Mothers want school transportation cuts reversed”. (May 22). I want to make clear that the Department of Education could easily afford 200 extra-curricular trips for each school district.

The May 22nd article was unclear on that point, and readers might have thought it was 200 extra-curricular trips for the province. There are 14 school districts in the province, so that would come to 2800 trips per year. Sports teams and clubs are important activities for our children. The fact that students and their parents are prepared to hold bake sales, bottle drives and other fundraisers to keep these activities alive shows how important it is to them.

$1.4 million is a small price to pay for our children’s safety. It is only 2.3 per cent of the school transportation budget, or 0.14 per cent of the total Education budget.
If you consider that that by 2012 the Shawn Graham government will be handing out $30million in tax savings to the 1,300 richest people in the province, it is clear that this government’s priorities are all wrong.

Delalene Harris Foran
President, CUPE 1253