Once again Manitoba school trustees have thumbed their noses at the province's warnings about increasing property taxes. The arrogance of this action at a time of economic crisis leads one to question the wisdom of continuing to give school divisions in Manitoba the power to tax when some have consistently abused this privilege.

Do we need 38 school divisions and districts, 38 school division offices and over 300 trustees and hundreds of division staff in Manitoba to make education policy decisions when we only require 57 MLAs for the governance of the entire province? In Winnipeg alone there are six school divisions and 54 trustees, more than three times the number of councillors at Winnipeg city hall. Does all of this duplication and extra cost provide better education for our children?

There are solutions to this problem already in place. Saskatchewan, along with Manitoba, was the last bastion in Canada to endorse an archaic system where school divisions set mill rates at will. Recently the Saskatchewan government abandoned this practice and established a province-wide mill rate so all property owners pay the same rate of taxation. Shortfalls of funding for divisions that have lesser tax bases are made up from the province's general revenues.