They are typically divided politically, but two local school trustees agree there needs to be more funding for public education, and it should have been a bigger issue in the recent election.
Board of education chair Michael Ewen and trustee Casey Cook said education funding didn't get the focus it deserved during the campaign.
"I was particularly frustrated, as an educator, that there wasn't more of a conversation about education," Ewen said. "It was one of the great frustrations for me during the election. The NDP released their platform and then stopped talking about it. The Liberals didn't really say much about it, other than they are going to continue doing much the same as what they're doing, I'm assuming."
Cook was also disappointed that education didn't garner more talk.
"Everything got caught up in the conversation of the economy," Cook said, adding there was almost "no discussion" on health care or education.
Reacting to the Liberals' unexpected win Tuesday night, Ewen, a lifelong NDPer, said he didn't know what caused the NDP to choke so badly. But he said the polls may not have been wrong - it might have just been a matter of not enough people voting.
Still, Ewen said the board will "work with the government we get, we'll just continue to do that."
Cook said, like many people, he was surprised by Tuesday's results, but not disappointed.
"In terms of New Westminster and the school board, I found, particularly with the new schools, that we had an awful lot of support around the new school construction - the capital plan (from the Liberals). I'm optimistic that that will continue."
Still, he wants a "re-look" at education funding.
"We need more funding," Cook said. "I'm hoping that that is going to get a review."
As for the election results, Cook said there are three reasons the NDP fared worse than expected. The first hit was the party's sudden turnaround on the Kinder Morgan pipleline expansion.
NDP party leader Adrian Dix said he did not want Vancouver turned into a major oil export facility and that an NDP government would take back "decision-making authority" from the federal government. Prior to the election, Dix said he wouldn't take a position until there was an application on the table.
Dix's performance in the leaders' debate also hurt the NDP, and the NDP didn't provide enough "clarity" on NDP policies, Cook said.
He also questioned whether the polls were actually wrong.
"The polls did go from about 20 per cent to seven per cent - and there was a couple of polls that even called it a dead heat toward the end," he said. "Once things start moving, man, it can go fast. We saw that in Alberta."
