To the editor:

Fiona Hughes is right on. Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid is spending $4.8 million in Vancouver ($15 million province-wide) to offer free summer fun and babysitting while forcing most B.C. schools to cut tens of millions from critical core services like special education, school libraries and programs that support students at risk.

It's one thing to offer remedial summer programs or year-round schooling for at-risk kids. But where is the equity and fiscal rationale for funding free summer dance classes from the education budget while provincial underfunding forces the VSB to cut $3 million from special education.

Dawn Steele,

Vancouver