Chapter 4: Categorizing the Data -- Late 20th Century Documents -- British Columbia's 1988 Sullivan Report

4.4d

Categorizing the Data -- Late 20^th Century Documents -- British Columbia's 1988 Sullivan Report 

   At this point I will just add some further comment on the British Columbia’s Sullivan Report of 1988. It is a very well written and a very thorough treatment of public education through a royal commission. I found myself engaged with the report entirely and emerged from it reminding myself that this report was for British Columbia only. If, as Canadians, we were going to experience Royal Commission on Public Education that directed us as a nation in those years, this report would be a model. To my mind it is, in many respects, proof that Royal Commissions on Education could be conducted at the national level and be relevant. The problem with regard to public education policy in Canada is the indirect impact that federal politics has on such reports, with no federal party involvement in public education policy that Canadian voters can refer to. The Sullivan report underlines some really important features of the commission-model system of assessing public education in Canadian provinces.  Sullivan’s recommendations provide the guidelines to the Ministry of Education.  This is done after a very thorough review of the current situation, after all submissions and research has been carried out and reviewed. The plan of action is presented after the commissioner has considered all the evidence and he justifies his recommendations on the basis of the evidence and current social and economic situation. An overarching historical perspective is maintained as well, insomuch as the commissioner recognizes the report as responding to a public education policy history that was last reviewed and altered as a consequence of 1960’s "Chant Commission." The sense of continuity in this public domain is maintained through this tradition. The Sullivan Report is potentially a late 20^th century model in terms of responding to the times and provides a comparative in terms of interpreting Ontario’s Radwanski Report. According to Manzer (1994) the Sullivan Report combines the uneasy bedfellows of multiculturalism and a common curriculum. By comparison, however, the Radwanski Report whitewashes multiculturalism with only one reference to “racism.” Prior to reading Manzer’s comments, I thought of the Radwanski Report as a report that was decidedly ‘urban’ (more specifically, it seems, Toronto, Ontario) and circumscribed in large measure by the values of Radwanski whose reputation maintains as blemished as a consequence of the allegation, which he was acquitted of, of tyranny and misappropriation of funds when he was head of the Privacy Commission in Ottawa. Radwanski seemed oblivious to Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Moosonee, and the many First Nations reservations in Ontario. To many, even prior to this history, Radwanski was perceived as an ambitious, avaricious personality and an unlikely and inappropriate character to write a report on education. But the Ontario legislature required a policy shift on short notice carried out by an outsider, a journalist/writer perceived by the public as unbiased. 

   The Sullivan Report is a consequence of an upswing in the economic condition in British Columbia after many years of fiscal restraint specifically tagging the downturn as occurring between 1981 and 1986. Generally speaking, the range mentioned extrapolates to the Canadian picture.  Sullivan writes:

   In 1984, the provincial economy began a gradual climb out of recession; by 1986, the economy had recovered most of the ground lost since 1981.  In the 1986-87 school year the education restraint program was ended.  Local spending and taxing authority were returned to school boards.  School boards took advantage of this discretion to restore some of the programs and services lost during the restraint period.  Although provincial funding continued to increase at a modest pace, total school board operating expenditure increased by over 5% in 1986-87 and by 7% in 1987-88.  

The Sullivan Report considers current changes and considers what kind of public education policy would be sufficient to meet the challenges of the 21^st century for the children entering kindergarten. Its intended range is 20 years.