Before I get to the comptroller general's seriously flawed report on the Vancouver School Board, let's put this dispute between the B.C. government and Vancouver's school trustees into a bit of context.

For the past few decades there has been a steady erosion of the autonomy of school boards. In the '80s, the province removed their power to raise revenues through property tax. Now Victoria gets all the dough and distributes it as they see fit.

The provincial government subsequently took away the board's authority to collectively bargain with their own teachers; they set up a province-wide model. And then Victoria started dictating class size.

All of these measures gave boards far less control over their bottom lines.

To make matters worse, the province has been down-loading costs to school boards leaving them with few choices except to cut programs and jobs or close schools.

Here is my favourite example: School boards are required to pay for their carbon footprint by buying carbon offsets. Long live Gordo the Green!

To determine the amount of the carbon offset boards have to pay, they are required to use a specific piece of software they have to pay the province for the right to use.

But that's not the whole story. Until recently, school boards received provincial funds that allowed them to upgrade schools in a way that would shrink their carbon footprint and therefore reduce the cost of carbon offsets. The province cancelled that grant this year, although it's been restored for next year, up to March.

So, here is where we are today. School boards that were once a relatively autonomous authority have, over time, been reduced, in Victoria's own words, to a role of "co-governance."

Take that to mean school boards are expected to just shut up and follow orders. School board chair Patti Bacchus is not a woman who keeps her mouth shut, hence the invasion of the bean counters.

But here's one more point before we get to that report. While all these changes have been taking place diminishing the authority of school boards, one thing hasn't changed. School boards remain elected bodies. They are not appointed.

This is an important distinction. But it's one that seems to have escaped the minister of education and B.C.'s Comptroller General Cheryl Wenezenki-Yolland who, along with her troops, landed on the shores of our school board to, um, lend them a hand with their financial problems.

Even the NPA's veteran school board trustee Ken Denike willingly observes that sending in a bean counter to do the work was just plain wrong. "She treated us," he said, "as if we were the board of a Crown corporation." That is to say a board that was handpicked by government to obediently do a job, not a group of elected officials to advocate on behalf of citizens.

Beyond that, two points may cause you to pause. Wenezenki-Yolland makes it clear in her report: "Specifically excluded from our scope of work was the structure of provincial funding model for education." In other words, she would not point fingers at the ministry or minister who sent her on this mission for any of the difficulties now being faced by the VSB. How convenient.

And, finally, the other point, one which gives you a sense of the fundamental flaw in this report. It's certainly the point that many commentators, including the minister, seized on as proof the VSB was screwing up.

Wenezenki-Yolland says "the board of trustees does not take a balanced approach to its accountabilities, focusing on advocacy to the expense of stewardship."

Now I ask you, seriously, how does a bean counter measure that "balanced approach"? Who sets the standard? Does Wenezenki-Yolland even know what she's talking about?

Besides, did this board not get elected to advocate for their constituents? Is that not the primary duty of every elected official?

agarr@vancourier.com