The British Columbia K-12 public education system is jointly managed by the provincial government, and the 59 elected school boards and the Francophone Education Authority. In terms of funding school building and improvements, Government and school boards share responsibility for ensuring that public schools provide the best possible learning environment for students. At the same time, the school system is legally required to provide a complete and accurate accounting of its use of public funds. Consequently, there is a shared accountability objective to allocate resources in a cost-effective manner. In addition, an equity objective seeks to have resources allocated fairly.
Government funds the capital costs of school construction through debt-service grants.
The major components of Government's capital program are site acquisition, construction of new schools, additions to existing schools, and renovations and upgrades. In addition to capital funding allocations, school boards receive an annual capital allowance to cover the costs of renovations to extend the useful life of school buildings. Each year school boards submit five-year capital plans which include details on school building projects they wish to undertake. Each capital request is analyzed and assigned a priority ranking. The criteria used to determine priority are applied consistently, thereby ensuring that proposed capital projects are ranked fairly.