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A TYPIEAIJ RuNARuND ‘

last Monday evening at Col. Gray High School Premier Campbell, Educa- tion Minister Gordon, Bennett and Finance Minister T. Earle Hickey, met with approximately 600 people representing the citizens and School Boards of Charlottetown, to discuss the new gover- ment bills on tax reform and Education.

Premier Campbell open-~ ed the speeches by sayé ing that he hoped that the meeting would not be one of confrontation but instead one of dis- cussion on matters of concern regarding the new tax act and school act. concerning the controversial Founda- tion Education Program. The Premier stated that the Government was en- deavoring to bring about equality among students no matter where they were located on the Island.

Messers Bennet and Hockey both addressed to the meeting after Premier Campbell was finished. Mr. Heckey gave a lot of technical figures on the new tax act and ended by saying that he thought that the new act was very simple and he .could see no problems to it. Education Minister .Bennett on the other hand gave a very "warm" homey talk in which he ‘congratulated the people _for attending the neat- ing, something which he ‘considered unique in this province, and stat- ved that never in the past have we had such an opp- ortunity_to get the opiniong of the public.

One of the Iemale speak- ers brought up the point that many of the people of Charlottetown felt that

.their school system would

be held back by the sovern~ ment Plan to equalize all school systems by 1976. They felt that, while the rest of the Island is catching.up. they will _ be forced to stand still. They seemed to shock the government represent— ative who had been in- formed of this opinion before.

However, Mr. Bennett said that the City School System would not suffer

"and would probably improve.

Mr. Bennett stated the Island school System would be composed of 5 boards. each composing of 15 members to admin- 'ister a school system. of only 30,000 students .and the idea of spliting it down even further is ‘unrealistic as there is an added expense of $50,000 for each Board, and he knew of places where this was 15 man board for a population of 160,000 students. Thus administration costs is the main reason' for Charlottetown not having its own board.

Concerning the matter of Supplementary Program Mr. Bennett said that that there were provis- ions in the Act for this, however. all the people inthe district would have to vote for it. Premier Campbell asked, "What did Charlottetown really want, their cake and eat it too?" It seemed to him that they wanted the lbenifits of the found- ation program plus extea

benifits unionfifi the long run must come out of the pockets of the rest of the people on

th Islam The meeging lasted alt.

most three hours and gave its overwhelming approval to a resolution submit- tied by Karl Winter of the West Kent Home and School Association.

This resolution called ;for Premier Campbell and government officials to meet with-representatives of the City Council. the City Schobl Board and

’Hbme and School Assoc-

iations to study all matters regarding the establishment of a seperate regional admis- tration of a seperate regional administrative

:school unit for Charlo-

tistpsnt- .

We are open to sugges- tions. meaningful sug— gestions, and as there are 28 sets of regulati tions in the SchOol Act still to be worked out, we look to bodies such as this for views and suggestions. Gover- nment authorities should -be listeding as well as talking.

Poor Mr. Bennett, the representatives of the School Boards led by Dr. Gordon Lea. Chairman of the City School Board.came so well pre- pared to back their

'demands for a seperate .school system for Char- .1ottetown that it seem-*

ed as if Mr. Bennett had not done his homework

’for the meeting.

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