I think the funding crunch has to do with the practicalities of running a school vs a business.
You have to have schools across the city, regardless of how efficient or what capacity a school is at. If a school is still running at 75% capacity, it runs. It takes quite a drop in enrollment to close a school since that is essentially moving what could be 100-200 children out of their neighbourhood.
Shaw is closing centers in Calgary / Vancouver etc, because from a financial point of view, it doesn't make sense to keep them here. They can operate somewhere else for less while still maintaining the same efficiency.
I imagine too, that the cuts are going to affect your shop, art, and tech classes first and foremost. Math classes are notoriously cheap to run. But I would imagine that any tech class is siginificantly more expensive to run, given that class size would be forced down due to safety, while equipment and maintenance costs shoot up. All with the understanding that those courses don't actually turn a profit the way an automotive shop would.
Just some thoughts.
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