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For a full size copy of the Charter for Public Education go to http://publiced.ca/index.php?page=english
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
Advice to MOE, School Boards, Administration, etc.
All of those involved in developing Education policy need to take a look at the Charter for Public Education. Determine if whatever you are advocating will get you closer to the Charter. If it does then you are heading in the right direction. If not, stop what you are doing and head in a direction that will.
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Monday, August 20, 2012
PRIVATIZATION: Paranoid or Perceptive?
“You can’t get people to drop something that works, unless you make it stop working.” – Corky Evans (2009)
When teachers express concern about privatization of education services, we hear: “Come on now...you teachers are just paranoid. Where’s the proof?”
We all know that the Liberal government believes in a free market ideology. That ideology drives their privatization agenda. We have seen this agenda in the various attempts at P3s, the privatization of important hospital services and in the undermining of BC Hydro while at the same time promoting private Run of the River projects.
Public Education is not immune to that ideology. The biggest difference is that because public education is so important to so many people, the government must be very careful about not just privatizing openly. They have to do so by stealth.
How do they do that? The privatization of public education is being facilitated by underfunding and the accountability agenda. Both are by design and are intended specifically to undermine public confidence in the public education system, over time.
“You can’t get people to drop something that works, unless you make it stop working.” – Corky Evans (2009)
The Liberal government believes that private is better and here is how they have gone about trying to “convince” the public.
1. First, underfund. If you withhold funding, important services are lost and if important services are lost, parents become dissatisfied with the public system. It is easy, for the government, once this happens, to implement “accountability measures. Those with enough money might bail on the public system at this point.
2. Implement the Accountability agenda
a. Keep the accountability demands as far away from the government as possible. Focus all accountability on the teachers
b. Bring in “Accountability Contracts” (which were quickly changed to “achievement contracts" in B.C.) Insist on standardization of goals and demand loads and loads of data. Design goals so that success is near impossible. That way more standardized tests can be justified.
c. Standardized tests – out of the demand for data comes standardized tests (FSAs, Grade 10 and 11 exams, a myriad of district wide tests).
d. Ranking of Schools – standardized testing then gives rise to the ranking of schools. These rankings undermine public confidence and seriously undermine teacher and student morale. The public calls for more standardization in the classroom so that the kids can do better on the standardized tests.
e. Standardization of education, results in a loss of autonomy for teachers and with the loss of autonomy, the education experience of students is diminished. Once the educational experience is diminished (i.e. narrowing curriculum, scripted lessons), private options look more attractive. Throw in public funding for private schools and the ability for full funding for private distributed learning and soon the public system is a shell of its former self.
When you consider the pattern established by past practice and you look at what is happening in the U.S. with private charter schools, I think you can dismiss paranoia and say ...”you teachers are so perceptive.”
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Education before incarceration
On Feb. 6, 2012 the Liberal government bragged that the new prison near Oliver BC would produce 240 full time jobs. Hold on...is this something to brag about? Wouldn't it be more appropriate, in a time when the crime rate has decreased, to brag that there will be 240 more teaching jobs, or 1000 more? That would be something to brag about. But when do we ever hear that? When it comes to education, it is more likely that we hear about cuts to teachers and resources.
Christy Clark has the gall to say that this prison will help families and will help schools thrive. Families will be attracted to the region. She goes on to say that she hopes that a prison in the community will change the statistics of Aboriginal incarceration in the country.
Whaaaat?
It is time to get our priorities straight. We need to support schools, rather than build more prisons. Education needs to be a priority over incarceration.
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
In Praise of Cowichan Valley Board of Trustees (Updated)
In Praise of Cowichan Valley Board of Trustees (Updated)
On May 17 in Janet Steffenhagen's blog George Abbott, in response to the approved restoration budget of Cowichan Valley School Board, predicted there will be “a miraculous turn around” by the board before the June 30 deadline for school districts to submit their budgets and went on to threaten the board with relief from their duties. Too bad George Abbott, you were wrong, the Cowichan Valley Board has submitted their restoration budget and I applaud them for doing so. http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/Education/2012/05/31/BCTF-supports-Cowichan-Valley-restoration-budget/
Support is rolling in, from around the province, on the facebook page "The Budget begins with you."
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Budget-Begins-With-You/367788029917203
The Cowichan Valley board is doing what any board should be doing. They have been elected to be stewards of the education system in their constituency and that is exactly what they are doing. They have the support of their constituents including the Cowichan Tribes, the largest First Nations band in British Columbia, whose council has passed a motion of support for the budget. They were elected on a platform that they would submit a restoration budget and to do anything different would be a breach of that promise to the community.
For ten years, boards across BC have been complying with the order to submit a balanced budget, without acknowledgement, through any effective action, of the damage that is being done to their schools and the children who attend those schools. To ignore that damage makes boards complicit in the destruction of the education system that our provincial government seems so intent on creating.
Eden Haythornthwaite, in her statement to the "Tyee" online news source said, " If we just continue to do it, what good are we to the community? We're no good. We're just a beard for the ministry." I couldn't agree more. The time has come. Enough is enough. Thank you Cowichan Valley School trustees.
I would encourage every citizen who is concerned about the state of funding for education in BC to write a letter of support to the Cowichan Valley board to their chair, Eden Haythornthwaite. Her e-mail address is
Support is rolling in, from around the province, on the facebook page "The Budget begins with you."
https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Budget-Begins-With-You/367788029917203
The Cowichan Valley board is doing what any board should be doing. They have been elected to be stewards of the education system in their constituency and that is exactly what they are doing. They have the support of their constituents including the Cowichan Tribes, the largest First Nations band in British Columbia, whose council has passed a motion of support for the budget. They were elected on a platform that they would submit a restoration budget and to do anything different would be a breach of that promise to the community.
For ten years, boards across BC have been complying with the order to submit a balanced budget, without acknowledgement, through any effective action, of the damage that is being done to their schools and the children who attend those schools. To ignore that damage makes boards complicit in the destruction of the education system that our provincial government seems so intent on creating.
Eden Haythornthwaite, in her statement to the "Tyee" online news source said, " If we just continue to do it, what good are we to the community? We're no good. We're just a beard for the ministry." I couldn't agree more. The time has come. Enough is enough. Thank you Cowichan Valley School trustees.
I would encourage every citizen who is concerned about the state of funding for education in BC to write a letter of support to the Cowichan Valley board to their chair, Eden Haythornthwaite. Her e-mail address is
ehaythor@sd79.bc.ca
Send copies to your own trustees letting them know that you agree with the actions of the Cowichan Valley school board.
Or if you are within travelling distance attend the Stand up for the Made-in-Cowichan Budget rally. It will be held outside the board office at 2557 Beverly Street in Duncan, on Wednesday June 20.
Update:
Listen to Eden Haythornthwaite on CBC at http://www.cbc.ca/ontheisland/2012/06/13/cowichan-school-board-standoff/#
Send copies to your own trustees letting them know that you agree with the actions of the Cowichan Valley school board.
Or if you are within travelling distance attend the Stand up for the Made-in-Cowichan Budget rally. It will be held outside the board office at 2557 Beverly Street in Duncan, on Wednesday June 20.
Update:
Listen to Eden Haythornthwaite on CBC at http://www.cbc.ca/ontheisland/2012/06/13/cowichan-school-board-standoff/#
Thursday, May 3, 2012
A Teacher's Perspective on the Principal's perspective
A Response to BCPVPA:
Following, in red, are my responses to the recent “Perspectives from the Principal’s Office,” by Jameel Aziz, President of the BC Principals’ and Vice-principals’ Association (BCPVPA). Upon reading this article, one might wonder how they think they will ever be able to mend the rift that has occurred between administration and teachers, let alone improve the relationship, by writing such an article. This type of article will only widen to a gaping chasm what could have been a mendable crack.
The 2011-2012 school year has been anything but normal and as we head into its last few months, I have been asked to share the perspectives of members of the BC Principals’ & Vice-Principals’ Association. These illustrations, while not representative of all schools, are examples of the real challenges that many schools, students and parents have faced this year.
Schools are typically vibrant communities, with a lot of positive interactions both in classrooms and out of them. School culture has been significantly eroded this year by the continuing dispute between the BC Public School Employers’ Association (the body which negotiates on behalf of school boards with teachers in British Columbia) and the BC Teachers’ Federation (BCTF). The routine and critically important communications between teachers and principals and vice-principals about student progress have not occurred in the normal fashion. As a consequence many students have not had their important academic issues addressed in a timely fashion or at all. Although teachers may not have been communicating with administration in the same way, they have continued to communicate with parents and with those colleagues responsible for developing programs and services to students. However, some academic issues may not have been addressed in a timely fashion, but one can hardly blame the job action on that. Many issues for students have not been addressed for years due to lack of funding and over 700 special education teacher positions being lost over the past 10 years. As well, school counsellor positions have decreased by 11.2% over the last 9 years. English as a Second Language positions have decreased by over 330. Library positions are nearly 300 fewer than in 2001. None of these can be attributed to declining needs. In fact needs have actually increased. Teachers are advocating for the return of these necessary services.
This year has seen the cancellation of some Christmas and winter holiday performances and routine student recognition assemblies. Some meetings about students who are having difficulties have not taken place. Meetings with teachers to discuss the direction of school initiatives and goals have not taken place. Parents did not receive first term report cards about their child’s progress. While some parents were able to get information about their child, many did not receive this information. Indeed, some parents reported that they made electronic contact with teachers but received no helpful response. Students have informed us that they have missed out on numerous scholarship opportunities as many of these applications require leadership activities to be considered. Mr Aziz, the wording of your accusation that some parents were “able to get information” would infer that getting information from teachers was difficult. The fact is that just the opposite was true. The vast majority of parents were getting far more useful information than they would ever get from a report card.
Surprisingly all of this disruption has not generated as much public response as those of us in the system would have expected. Still, principals and vice-principals often hear from parents that they are concerned about vocalizing these issues. It is not surprising at all that this has not generated much public response. When people are actually getting better and more relevant service, they don’t usually complain. Teachers have worked very hard this year to ensure that parents get useful and relevant information about their children’s progress.
We have now moved into a new phase of this dispute. In many districts, the school day consists of student instruction from bell to bell but little else. If we, as adults, reflect on our student experiences, we know that instruction and formal learning opportunities are only part of the value of school. The interactions
with teachers and others, through clubs, sports, fine arts activities,
drama performances, field trips and special school activities
make our schools special and create unique, memorable and
invaluable experiences for students. These enriching and positive
opportunities will not be a part of the public education experience
for many of our students. Teachers are not stopping these activities from occurring. Principals, vice principals and other excluded staff along with parents and community members are welcome to step up to the plate and do their share. If principals and others believe these activities to be “invaluable, unique, memorable, enriching and positive, then surely they will step up. Mr. Aziz, your descriptive words mean nothing if you continue to write other words that indicate a complete lack of respect for the teachers and the work they do. For as long as I can remember, teachers have been freely giving of their own volunteer time to support other people’s children. Perhaps it is time for people to realize just how much teachers actually do to support their students beyond what is required.
Principals and vice-principals have had many conversations about a
new normal that is being established in our schools and they have
consistently expressed a belief that this is not a positive direction.
If schools lose the energy, character and culture that have been
their hallmark, our students will leave their public education years
less well-rounded, less prepared for their working lives and less
likely to champion public education when they are adults. What a short time it took principals and vice principals to declare that a new normal is being established! I suppose if it goes on long enough some teachers may decide to curtail some of their volunteer activities. I don’t know. However, if you are concerned, it might be wise to step up to the plate and start supporting teachers’ efforts to achieve an education system that is in keeping with “Better Schools for BC” than supporting the constant underfunding of our education system through silence and complicity.
Better Schools for BC http://bctf.ca/uploadedFiles/Public/Publications/BetterSchoolsForBC.pdf
Principals and vice-principals do not have the answers to resolve
the issues facing our schools, but we believe it is important to
share the reality as we see it on a daily basis. Our concern, as this
school year moves to a close, is that nothing will be different in
September and students will be forced to endure another year of
disengagement from the system. It won’t do any good to just stand by and be concerned. You need to be vocal and work alongside teachers in their efforts to maintain a Class A education system. You cannot do that by cheering as this government attempts to make the lives of teachers more difficult by stripping long standing rights to job security. You cannot do that by supporting threats to teachers through Bill 22. The actions of Principals and vice principals through articles like this one can only further erode the already strained relationship between these two groups.
There is no sign that a resolution is at hand. If this dispute
continues for another year, the negative effects will be long-term
and profound. You are right. There currently is no sign of resolution. How can there be with legislation being drawn up like Bill 22 and Bill 36? How can there be when there have been 21 education bills since the current government has been in office, not one of which has been seen by teachers as offering an improvement? 10 of these pieces of legislation have been deemed in contravention of International Labour Law, of which Canada is a signatory.
Bill 22 hurts students and attacks teachers’ rights. http://www.bctf.ca/BargainingAndContracts.aspx?id=25978
Principals and vice-principals have worked hard this year to ensure
that as many as possible of the normal school processes occur,
and they will continue to do so. However, the system works much
more effectively to serve the needs of students and families when
all partners are able to work together to provide that support. Wouldn’t that be great! Unfortunately, it has been mostly teachers who have been volunteering to do extra-curricular activities. This latest job action is to protest the cuts of the last 10 years and to advocate for re-instatement and improvement of services to students. Perhaps if principals and vice-principals joined with teachers and “worked together” in this important struggle “to provide that support” we wouldn’t be in this situation.
This latest phase in our schools will not allow principals and vice principals
to pick up the many pieces of school life that will be lost
and in the end it will be the students and families of the public
system who will miss out.
Statement from BCTF in response to this statement: For the past 10 years, it’s been teachers picking up the pieces – because of the loss of so many special education positions, because of the loss of ESL teaching positions, because of larger class sizes and fewer supports to go around to all students. Teachers in schools have been shouldering the burden. Their union dues have gone toward expensive challenges in the courts to try to get those working and learning conditions back, and teachers’ hard work has gone into trying to get the message out to parents and the public about the devastating changes flowing from Bill 27/28. From our perspective, the BCPVPA has, at best, sat idly by – and, at worst, cheered the provincial government for implementing legislation like Bills 27/28.
A respectful and workable solution must be found soon to protect
the long-term viability of public education and to continue to give
students the opportunities they need to thrive now and achieve
in the future. Yes indeed! A respectful and workable solution is what is needed. What is not needed is Bill after Bill that erodes the rights of teachers and promotes the deterioration of our children's learning conditions and our education system.
Following, in red, are my responses to the recent “Perspectives from the Principal’s Office,” by Jameel Aziz, President of the BC Principals’ and Vice-principals’ Association (BCPVPA). Upon reading this article, one might wonder how they think they will ever be able to mend the rift that has occurred between administration and teachers, let alone improve the relationship, by writing such an article. This type of article will only widen to a gaping chasm what could have been a mendable crack.
The 2011-2012 school year has been anything but normal and as we head into its last few months, I have been asked to share the perspectives of members of the BC Principals’ & Vice-Principals’ Association. These illustrations, while not representative of all schools, are examples of the real challenges that many schools, students and parents have faced this year.
Schools are typically vibrant communities, with a lot of positive interactions both in classrooms and out of them. School culture has been significantly eroded this year by the continuing dispute between the BC Public School Employers’ Association (the body which negotiates on behalf of school boards with teachers in British Columbia) and the BC Teachers’ Federation (BCTF). The routine and critically important communications between teachers and principals and vice-principals about student progress have not occurred in the normal fashion. As a consequence many students have not had their important academic issues addressed in a timely fashion or at all. Although teachers may not have been communicating with administration in the same way, they have continued to communicate with parents and with those colleagues responsible for developing programs and services to students. However, some academic issues may not have been addressed in a timely fashion, but one can hardly blame the job action on that. Many issues for students have not been addressed for years due to lack of funding and over 700 special education teacher positions being lost over the past 10 years. As well, school counsellor positions have decreased by 11.2% over the last 9 years. English as a Second Language positions have decreased by over 330. Library positions are nearly 300 fewer than in 2001. None of these can be attributed to declining needs. In fact needs have actually increased. Teachers are advocating for the return of these necessary services.
This year has seen the cancellation of some Christmas and winter holiday performances and routine student recognition assemblies. Some meetings about students who are having difficulties have not taken place. Meetings with teachers to discuss the direction of school initiatives and goals have not taken place. Parents did not receive first term report cards about their child’s progress. While some parents were able to get information about their child, many did not receive this information. Indeed, some parents reported that they made electronic contact with teachers but received no helpful response. Students have informed us that they have missed out on numerous scholarship opportunities as many of these applications require leadership activities to be considered. Mr Aziz, the wording of your accusation that some parents were “able to get information” would infer that getting information from teachers was difficult. The fact is that just the opposite was true. The vast majority of parents were getting far more useful information than they would ever get from a report card.
Surprisingly all of this disruption has not generated as much public response as those of us in the system would have expected. Still, principals and vice-principals often hear from parents that they are concerned about vocalizing these issues. It is not surprising at all that this has not generated much public response. When people are actually getting better and more relevant service, they don’t usually complain. Teachers have worked very hard this year to ensure that parents get useful and relevant information about their children’s progress.
We have now moved into a new phase of this dispute. In many districts, the school day consists of student instruction from bell to bell but little else. If we, as adults, reflect on our student experiences, we know that instruction and formal learning opportunities are only part of the value of school. The interactions
with teachers and others, through clubs, sports, fine arts activities,
drama performances, field trips and special school activities
make our schools special and create unique, memorable and
invaluable experiences for students. These enriching and positive
opportunities will not be a part of the public education experience
for many of our students. Teachers are not stopping these activities from occurring. Principals, vice principals and other excluded staff along with parents and community members are welcome to step up to the plate and do their share. If principals and others believe these activities to be “invaluable, unique, memorable, enriching and positive, then surely they will step up. Mr. Aziz, your descriptive words mean nothing if you continue to write other words that indicate a complete lack of respect for the teachers and the work they do. For as long as I can remember, teachers have been freely giving of their own volunteer time to support other people’s children. Perhaps it is time for people to realize just how much teachers actually do to support their students beyond what is required.
Principals and vice-principals have had many conversations about a
new normal that is being established in our schools and they have
consistently expressed a belief that this is not a positive direction.
If schools lose the energy, character and culture that have been
their hallmark, our students will leave their public education years
less well-rounded, less prepared for their working lives and less
likely to champion public education when they are adults. What a short time it took principals and vice principals to declare that a new normal is being established! I suppose if it goes on long enough some teachers may decide to curtail some of their volunteer activities. I don’t know. However, if you are concerned, it might be wise to step up to the plate and start supporting teachers’ efforts to achieve an education system that is in keeping with “Better Schools for BC” than supporting the constant underfunding of our education system through silence and complicity.
Better Schools for BC http://bctf.ca/uploadedFiles/Public/Publications/BetterSchoolsForBC.pdf
Principals and vice-principals do not have the answers to resolve
the issues facing our schools, but we believe it is important to
share the reality as we see it on a daily basis. Our concern, as this
school year moves to a close, is that nothing will be different in
September and students will be forced to endure another year of
disengagement from the system. It won’t do any good to just stand by and be concerned. You need to be vocal and work alongside teachers in their efforts to maintain a Class A education system. You cannot do that by cheering as this government attempts to make the lives of teachers more difficult by stripping long standing rights to job security. You cannot do that by supporting threats to teachers through Bill 22. The actions of Principals and vice principals through articles like this one can only further erode the already strained relationship between these two groups.
There is no sign that a resolution is at hand. If this dispute
continues for another year, the negative effects will be long-term
and profound. You are right. There currently is no sign of resolution. How can there be with legislation being drawn up like Bill 22 and Bill 36? How can there be when there have been 21 education bills since the current government has been in office, not one of which has been seen by teachers as offering an improvement? 10 of these pieces of legislation have been deemed in contravention of International Labour Law, of which Canada is a signatory.
Bill 22 hurts students and attacks teachers’ rights. http://www.bctf.ca/BargainingAndContracts.aspx?id=25978
Principals and vice-principals have worked hard this year to ensure
that as many as possible of the normal school processes occur,
and they will continue to do so. However, the system works much
more effectively to serve the needs of students and families when
all partners are able to work together to provide that support. Wouldn’t that be great! Unfortunately, it has been mostly teachers who have been volunteering to do extra-curricular activities. This latest job action is to protest the cuts of the last 10 years and to advocate for re-instatement and improvement of services to students. Perhaps if principals and vice-principals joined with teachers and “worked together” in this important struggle “to provide that support” we wouldn’t be in this situation.
This latest phase in our schools will not allow principals and vice principals
to pick up the many pieces of school life that will be lost
and in the end it will be the students and families of the public
system who will miss out.
Statement from BCTF in response to this statement: For the past 10 years, it’s been teachers picking up the pieces – because of the loss of so many special education positions, because of the loss of ESL teaching positions, because of larger class sizes and fewer supports to go around to all students. Teachers in schools have been shouldering the burden. Their union dues have gone toward expensive challenges in the courts to try to get those working and learning conditions back, and teachers’ hard work has gone into trying to get the message out to parents and the public about the devastating changes flowing from Bill 27/28. From our perspective, the BCPVPA has, at best, sat idly by – and, at worst, cheered the provincial government for implementing legislation like Bills 27/28.
A respectful and workable solution must be found soon to protect
the long-term viability of public education and to continue to give
students the opportunities they need to thrive now and achieve
in the future. Yes indeed! A respectful and workable solution is what is needed. What is not needed is Bill after Bill that erodes the rights of teachers and promotes the deterioration of our children's learning conditions and our education system.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Extracurricular activities: Who is betraying the faith?
Geoff Johnson, retired superintendent has once again gotten it wrong in his article "Extracurricular Activities Make a Difference."
http://www.timescolonist.com/sports/Extracurricular+activities+make+difference/6471190/story.html
http://
Geoff, if we all know about these kids, I’m wondering why you and current administration are not stepping up to the plate to coach. Why is it not important enough for their own parents to step up and take over for the next 2 and one half months? Why are teachers the only ones expected to volunteer time so that people like Mike can have that special reason to keep going?
Let me assure you that teachers have not decided to do this lightly. It is with a heavy heart that they do this. However, the suggestion that extra-curricular be included in the job action has come from the grassroots teachers. In some locals it has been the coaches themselves who have volunteered to drop extra-curricular because they feel that the government has backed them into that corner through the passage of Bill 22.
I wonder why you insist on laying the blame at the feet of the teachers rather than on the government who are the perpetrators of that shabby treatment of which you speak.
I don’t think the BCTF has ever said it is “all” about the kids. However, it certainly is about the future of our education system which of course is in place for the kids. There is a much bigger picture here which the teachers of BC are concerned about and if you really want to help, I suggest you and your administrator friends step forward and fill the temporary gap in extra-curricular. Since they (administrators) refuse to take a stand on underfunding, Bill 22, and other assaults on the education system, perhaps they could just do that little bit while the teachers are actually taking a stand in protecting our world class education system before it is completely ruined.
The government of BC is betraying the children's faith and the Principals' and Vice-principals' Association and the BC School Superintendents' Association has done nothing to show that they disagree with that betrayal of faith. It's time to step forward.
Monday, March 5, 2012
BCPSEA: What a Mug's Game they play!
BCTF’s opening proposal for salary is Cost of living for the 1st year, cost of living plus a small market adjustment of 3% in the second and third years. BCPSEA claims that this opening proposal of 15% over 3 years amounts to 2 billion dollars.
Let’s take a closer look.
The full operating grant funding for 2011/12 amounts to 4.72 billion dollars. Teacher salaries account for 2.17 billion. That’s about 46% of the total operating grant for the province.
Yet the government and BCPSEA claim that an opening proposal of 15% over three years will equal 2 billion? Even an elementary school studying basic percentages couldn’t fathom that. That preposterous claim would mean that the teachers are asking that their salaries be raised by nearly 100% during the course of three years. Did they hear wrong? Were the teachers asking for 100% increase over 3 years? No, they were making an opening proposal of 3% (cost of living), 3% cost of living + 3% market adjustment, then 3% cost of living + 3% market adjustment. All of which is negotiable, by the way.
15% of 2.17 billion is actually $325,510,038. Even with some compounding over the 3 years, the teachers are not asking for 100% increase over 3 years as BCPSEA suggests and as Mr. Abbott and various newspapers keep repeating.
Hope that puts an end to the Mug’s game that BCPSEA is playing with regard to salary demands.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Corrections to Government Made-up "Facts."
Thank you to the BC Ministry of Education for providing me with such a convenient opportunity to present the facts to my readers. The following table (the parts in black) was posted on the Ministry websites. Most of what they have presented as fact is simply made up. The REAL facts are in red.
British Columbia Teachers’ Federation Claim | FACT |
700 fewer Special Needs teachers | Government propagated MYTH: 2,100 additional special needs teaching assistants in B.C. classrooms. FACT: Although assistants are important, in the time between 2001 and 2007 over 600 special ed. TEACHERS were lost. At the same time the numbers of special needs students increased by over 1400 students. Since 2006 , 174 more special needs teachers have been lost and over 1,000 more special needs assistants have been added. |
Ninth-best paid in Canada | Gov propagated MYTH: B.C. teachers’ salary plus benefits is fourth-best among provinces. FACT: When comparing categories of equal training and experience BC teachers range from 6th to 9th depending on category. The facts are clearly shown in the BCTF documents found at http://www.bctf.ca/uploadedFiles/Public/BargainingContracts/U102-SalaryDocument.pdf |
Seniority eroded under Bill 22 - Education Improvement Act | Gov propagated MYTH: Seniority remains key factor but qualifications also considered. Math teachers teaching Math; Science teachers teaching Science. FACT: This is a made-up problem. All teacher collective agreements contain within their seniority language a provision that qualifications trump seniority. The government proposal is that seniority comes after principal’s choice which opens the door for all kinds of discrimination which would be difficult to prove. i.e. nepotism, cronyism, applicant too active in the union, too fat, too feminine, too masculine, of child bearing age. Who knows? Seniority is NOT a key factor in the BCPSEA proposal and for their information qualifications are already considered in collective agreements. |
Contract demands are reasonable | Gov propagated MYTH: A 15 per cent wage increase at a cost of $2 billion is completely unreasonable, given the current economic reality. FACT: It is reasonable to ask for a cost of living increase. And since BC teachers are so far behind colleagues across the country, it is reasonable to propose a small catch-up, which by the way is only a tiny fraction of the actual gap. This is also our opening position. Unfortunately BCPSEA has not offered even one counter to our opening position. Furthermore, BCPSEA continues to play a mug’s game with their costing. The BCTF costing of all of our proposals is $535 million dollars. It’s a little odd 15% increase to one account (which comprises between 40 – 50% of the total budget) within a total budget of 4 – 5 billion $ would increase the total budget by nearly 50%. Hmmm...Some monkey business going on with those calculations. |
Wage increases are modest | Gov propagated MYTH: Teachers’ union demands would cost $2 billion, which would raise taxes on all B.C. families. FACT: The BC Liberals have made some serious mistakes in handling taxpayer money. They are now choosing to make the workers of BC pay for their mistakes. They have other options which they refuse to take. They could rescind some of the tax breaks they have given to the wealthiest corporations. Currently BC has the lowest corporate tax rates in the G8. I am not talking about incorporated small businesses here. I am talking about extremely wealthy companies, many of whom over charge and underpay. Talk about favouring the 1% over the 99%. |
Eliminated class sizes | Gov propagated MYTH: Class-size caps on all grades with exceptions made by principals and superintendents. FACT: And how are principals and superintendents going to make class sizes reasonable without adequate funding? The consultation with the teacher, the person who best knows what will work in any given classroom, is also no longer required. |
Reject net-zero wage mandate | 130 net-zero contracts signed. 25,000 CUPE employees signed net zero contracts. FACT: That is a decision for other unions to make. Labour unions are in support of the BCTF struggle for a fair and reasonable deal. They recognize that this is an assault on all of them, not just teachers. |
Teachers have not been fairly compensated | Teachers received a 16 per cent wage increase; $3,700 signing bonus for their last contract. FACT: And yet teachers have gone from 3rd in Canada to as low as 9th. But what is even more egregious is the insistence on stripping the collective agreement of long held rights. Furthermore the government has ignored the Supreme Court ruling by Judge Griffin regarding class size and composition, teachers’ working conditions and students’ learning conditions. Bill 22 is an all out assault on unions and the government is starting with teachers. It is also an assault on students and the education system in general. |
12,000 overcrowded classes | Gov propagated MYTH: Of 65,000 classes, fewer than 1,500 have more than 31 students. Fewer than 600 have more than 33 -- most of these are band, choir and theatre. FACT: Overcrowding is more than that. What about classes that pose a health and safety problem because children are being crammed into labs that are only made for 24 students? What about classes of 28 with 8 special needs students? Are those not overcrowded? Here is the BCTF brief on Education Funding to the Select Standing committee on Finance and Government Services which clearly indicates the true extent of overcrowding in our schools: |
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Heroes? Who are the real heroes in the education system?
I was shocked and dismayed to read an article in the Province, written by Joy Ruffeski, retired administrator and past president of the BC Retired Principals and Vice Principals association?
She insists that principals are unsung heroes in the current teachers’ job action.
Giving the title of hero to a group who has kept silent about the cuts to the education system for over 10 years seems a bit of an overstatement.
We might not be in this situation if the principals, vice principals and superintendents had stood up to the government. We may still have our teachers of the special needs, our librarians and more reasonable class sizes and workable class compositions. We may not have health and safety issues in our labs and shops because of overcrowding. In fact we may have improved on what we had in 2001 if principals and other administrators had the courage to stand up and work as hard as teachers have to maintain and improve services within the education system. Their silence has NOT helped the students.
Instead they have left the job to teachers.
It is astounding that someone, who worked within the system, could not see that the workload of teachers is untenable with or without the few jobs that the principals/administration have had to do during the job action. The administration is now adding to their workload what teachers have been doing forever (with constant additional tasks being added over the past 10 years). If administrators can’t handle it for a few months, just imagine what it has been like for teachers for 10 YEARS!
And don’t ever think that the administration has not cut back on what teachers usually do. Some districts have eliminated recess to avoid supervision. Others have refused to do paperwork and money collection for field trips, thus causing trips to be cancelled (and then blaming the job action). But somehow it is okay to burden teachers with this extra work?
There is a positive to this article however. What it is doing, is admitting to the public that a teacher’s job is too difficult. Just think, a teacher who works close to an average 50 hours per week, has all this to do as well. Perhaps now that administrators have experienced a bit of the reality, they will, instead of agreeing to pile even more on to teachers, work to support teachers. Perhaps they will realize the need for adequate preparation time for teachers. Perhaps they will join the fight for adequate funding and workable class sizes and compositions instead of checking off the hundreds of forms saying that class sizes and compositions are suitable for student learning when they clearly are not.
Perhaps they will join the true heroes of the system and become heroes themselves as well.
We can hope.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Response to George Abbott's Editorial re Appointment of "neutral" fact-finder
On Feb. 10, Minister of Education, George Abbott, released an "opinion-editorial" regarding the recent appointment of government insider, Trevor Hughes, as a so-called "neutral" investigator into the progress of teacher/BCPSEA bargaining. Following are my comments, in italics and bolded and red, to many of the assertions made by Minister Abbott.
Opinion-Editorial
By George Abbott
Minister of Education
Feb 10, 2011
VICTORIA - Since being appointed Education Minister last March, I've had the pleasure of visiting 95 schools and half of the province's 60 school districts. I've met with hundreds of teachers, students, parents and administrators.
Every visit and every meeting has only reinforced in my mind that British Columbia has a great education system, filled with people who are passionate about what they do.
I've seen first-hand how important teachers are to student success.
So if you really mean this, why is your focus on fix the teacher? Why are you trying to control teacher Pro-D, implement an evaluation system that does not contain due process, etc.?
I also know how important it is for teaching assistants, administrators, principals, parents and teachers to work together to support learning. It takes co-operation and a team of people to help students reach their full potential.
Unfortunately, the current teacher's strike makes this kind of co-operation virtually impossible.
This statement is untrue. Teachers will meet with teaching assistants, parents and other teachers. They will not meet with administration unless the administrator is also teaching a particular student.
Teachers are not attending staff meetings nor any other meetings at which the principal is present. There are no collaborative meetings between teachers, principals, vice-principals, district staff and education assistants. There are no written communications with principals, whether they are student marks, progress reports, or report cards. Unfortunately, it is often the very students most in need of our educational teams who bear the brunt of the union's actions.
Where is the evidence to back up such a statement? You know full well that the teachers' job action has been designed to NOT be detrimental to student learning.
Almost a year ago, employers and the teachers' union sat down to negotiate a new contract. We made it clear from the outset that we had a net-zero mandate. But employers also wanted to talk about how to improve benefits for teachers, how to ensure the right teachers are matched to the right jobs, and how to support good teachers so they can become great teachers.
Where is the evidence that there is a plethora of teachers in the wrong jobs? Is it worth alienating the whole teaching force of BC to correct a handful of bad decisions by principals? Any problems in this regard are not the fault of teacher collective agreements.
Then last fall, government put $165 million in new funding on the table to deal with class composition issues. And yet - like everything else we brought forward - the teachers union walked away from discussions on how to best use those funds. Their singular focus has been to secure a large salary increase - 15 percent over three years -- and other major compensation improvements estimated at over $2 billion.
The teachers' union did not walk away from the discussions. The government walked away from the table because they refused to talk about any agreement that would limit class size and composition. Moreover, the BCTF's focus has not been solely on compensation improvements. The BCTF tabled a proposal on class size and composition at the remedy table which offered FLEXIBILITY for families. When digging deeper into how much the new $165 million would benefit students it would benefit each student by 27 cents per day or 1 minute of time per day. (See http://staffroomconfidential.blogspot.com/2012/02/bcs-learning-incentives-fund-1-minute.html ) Furthermore the process for getting that paltry sum would cause schools and districts to compete for it. Along with not being even close to adequate, it is an extremely undignified (and I would say unsavoury) way to obtain funding for our students with special needs.
On the salary bit: The BCTF tabled a salary proposal that would ensure a cost of living increase for each of three years along with a very modest labour market adjustment that would make a very slight move towards catching up to other provinces. BC teachers are now 9th to 11th out of 13 prov and territories. This is nothing for the BC Liberal govt to be proud of. This is an opening proposal and is negotiable. Despite 11 months of negotiations and nearly 80 bargaining sessions, there are few signs of progress. We have successfully negotiated agreements with all other major public sector unions. The teachers' union, unfortunately, steadfastly refuses to accept British Columbia's economic and financial reality. The union's proposal to increase personal income taxes by 25 per cent to pay for their wage demands is completely unreasonable and ignores the needs and challenges of families across this province.
The "economic and financial reality" of the BC gov't is as a result of some very unwise decisions by the Liberal govt. There is the "roof" (over half a billion $), then the enormous tax breaks to corporations which amounted to a loss of billions in tax revenue. The logic presented by the Liberals was that it would result in a "trickle down" of jobs. That didn't happen. Let's not forget the smart meters that no one wants. That amounts to nearly 1 billion dollars. Some whole municipalities have spoken in opposition to installing these expensive meters. In order to pay for these unwise decisions, the education system has been deprived of over 3 billion needed dollars in the past 10 years and the public sector workers, the real economic workhorses, have been forced to pay for these mistakes. The BCTF is absolutely NOT advocating for a tax increase for the citizens of BC. The gov't needs to take another look at their own priorities. They are the ones who are ignoring the needs and challenges of families across this province by prioritizing tax cuts to the wealthy, and other unwise expenditures, over the education of future generations, the very people who will be running our province in a few years.
The strike is having a real impact on students and creating a strain in our schools and classrooms. There is rising anxiety, frustration and concern amongst all educational partners about the length of time this dispute has gone on and the impact on 500,000 students across British Columbia. Government would prefer to negotiate an agreement, but we cannot let the current impasse drift indefinitely.
Respect teachers and care about students. That is the solution. You can't put students first if you put teachers last.
I am simply not prepared to see a school year pass without every parent in B.C. getting a fulsome accounting of how their children are progressing in school. I am particularly concerned about the impact on vulnerable students.
Teachers are working harder than ever to give students a full accounting of their progress. If parents have further concerns they should contact their child's teacher. They will receive a far more comprehensive and useful accounting than any report card ever could.
This past week, in an effort to resolve this issue, I asked Labour Minister Margaret MacDiarmid to appoint a neutral party to inquire into the status of negotiations. It may well be that this individual can find reasons to be optimistic about continuing negotiations - or it may be that government will need to look at other ways to resolve the dispute.
Minister MacDiarmid has failed in her job. She has not appointed a neutral party. She has appointed an Assistant Deputy Minister within the Liberal Government to do the inquiry. Under no definition of the word "neutral" is this a neutral appointment. Claire Avison, also an Assistant Deputy Minister of the Liberal Government, has been at the bargaining table since June 2011 and has clearly stated that the government mandate is non-negotiable. A truly neutral party would find this pre-condition to bargaining as a major blockage to full free collective bargaining.
This past fall, we announced BC's new Education Plan to transform education and better prepare students for the 21st century. It has been a great success. Now, more than ever, we want teachers to work with all the educational partners to improve our system.
But to move forward, we need to restore some degree of normalcy to what remains of the school year. And I sincerely hope the neutral party, working with the employers and the teachers union, can help us find that constructive path.
Minister Abbott repeats the term "neutral party." I do not see any neutral party involved. This appointment is eroding the credibility of the Liberal government even beyond where it is now. The appointment of a similar "neutral party" in September of 2005 (also under a net zero mandate) resulted in legislation being introduced within 3 days of the final report from Assistant Deputy Minister Connolly. That report appeared to be pre-planned and biased and I don't see any reason to believe that this time it will be any different.
One point that I missed. Mr. Abbott says " I sincerely hope the neutral party, working with the employers and the teachers union, can help us find that constructive path." This statement is anything but sincere. He knows full well that the so-called "neutral party" has been given a yes or no task. He is to say yes they can reach agreement or no they can't. I don't see that it is within his mandate to do anything that could be termed constructive.
Opinion-Editorial
By George Abbott
Minister of Education
Feb 10, 2011
VICTORIA - Since being appointed Education Minister last March, I've had the pleasure of visiting 95 schools and half of the province's 60 school districts. I've met with hundreds of teachers, students, parents and administrators.
Every visit and every meeting has only reinforced in my mind that British Columbia has a great education system, filled with people who are passionate about what they do.
I've seen first-hand how important teachers are to student success.
So if you really mean this, why is your focus on fix the teacher? Why are you trying to control teacher Pro-D, implement an evaluation system that does not contain due process, etc.?
I also know how important it is for teaching assistants, administrators, principals, parents and teachers to work together to support learning. It takes co-operation and a team of people to help students reach their full potential.
Unfortunately, the current teacher's strike makes this kind of co-operation virtually impossible.
This statement is untrue. Teachers will meet with teaching assistants, parents and other teachers. They will not meet with administration unless the administrator is also teaching a particular student.
Teachers are not attending staff meetings nor any other meetings at which the principal is present. There are no collaborative meetings between teachers, principals, vice-principals, district staff and education assistants. There are no written communications with principals, whether they are student marks, progress reports, or report cards. Unfortunately, it is often the very students most in need of our educational teams who bear the brunt of the union's actions.
Where is the evidence to back up such a statement? You know full well that the teachers' job action has been designed to NOT be detrimental to student learning.
Almost a year ago, employers and the teachers' union sat down to negotiate a new contract. We made it clear from the outset that we had a net-zero mandate. But employers also wanted to talk about how to improve benefits for teachers, how to ensure the right teachers are matched to the right jobs, and how to support good teachers so they can become great teachers.
Where is the evidence that there is a plethora of teachers in the wrong jobs? Is it worth alienating the whole teaching force of BC to correct a handful of bad decisions by principals? Any problems in this regard are not the fault of teacher collective agreements.
Then last fall, government put $165 million in new funding on the table to deal with class composition issues. And yet - like everything else we brought forward - the teachers union walked away from discussions on how to best use those funds. Their singular focus has been to secure a large salary increase - 15 percent over three years -- and other major compensation improvements estimated at over $2 billion.
The teachers' union did not walk away from the discussions. The government walked away from the table because they refused to talk about any agreement that would limit class size and composition. Moreover, the BCTF's focus has not been solely on compensation improvements. The BCTF tabled a proposal on class size and composition at the remedy table which offered FLEXIBILITY for families. When digging deeper into how much the new $165 million would benefit students it would benefit each student by 27 cents per day or 1 minute of time per day. (See http://staffroomconfidential.blogspot.com/2012/02/bcs-learning-incentives-fund-1-minute.html ) Furthermore the process for getting that paltry sum would cause schools and districts to compete for it. Along with not being even close to adequate, it is an extremely undignified (and I would say unsavoury) way to obtain funding for our students with special needs.
On the salary bit: The BCTF tabled a salary proposal that would ensure a cost of living increase for each of three years along with a very modest labour market adjustment that would make a very slight move towards catching up to other provinces. BC teachers are now 9th to 11th out of 13 prov and territories. This is nothing for the BC Liberal govt to be proud of. This is an opening proposal and is negotiable. Despite 11 months of negotiations and nearly 80 bargaining sessions, there are few signs of progress. We have successfully negotiated agreements with all other major public sector unions. The teachers' union, unfortunately, steadfastly refuses to accept British Columbia's economic and financial reality. The union's proposal to increase personal income taxes by 25 per cent to pay for their wage demands is completely unreasonable and ignores the needs and challenges of families across this province.
The "economic and financial reality" of the BC gov't is as a result of some very unwise decisions by the Liberal govt. There is the "roof" (over half a billion $), then the enormous tax breaks to corporations which amounted to a loss of billions in tax revenue. The logic presented by the Liberals was that it would result in a "trickle down" of jobs. That didn't happen. Let's not forget the smart meters that no one wants. That amounts to nearly 1 billion dollars. Some whole municipalities have spoken in opposition to installing these expensive meters. In order to pay for these unwise decisions, the education system has been deprived of over 3 billion needed dollars in the past 10 years and the public sector workers, the real economic workhorses, have been forced to pay for these mistakes. The BCTF is absolutely NOT advocating for a tax increase for the citizens of BC. The gov't needs to take another look at their own priorities. They are the ones who are ignoring the needs and challenges of families across this province by prioritizing tax cuts to the wealthy, and other unwise expenditures, over the education of future generations, the very people who will be running our province in a few years.
The strike is having a real impact on students and creating a strain in our schools and classrooms. There is rising anxiety, frustration and concern amongst all educational partners about the length of time this dispute has gone on and the impact on 500,000 students across British Columbia. Government would prefer to negotiate an agreement, but we cannot let the current impasse drift indefinitely.
Respect teachers and care about students. That is the solution. You can't put students first if you put teachers last.
I am simply not prepared to see a school year pass without every parent in B.C. getting a fulsome accounting of how their children are progressing in school. I am particularly concerned about the impact on vulnerable students.
Teachers are working harder than ever to give students a full accounting of their progress. If parents have further concerns they should contact their child's teacher. They will receive a far more comprehensive and useful accounting than any report card ever could.
This past week, in an effort to resolve this issue, I asked Labour Minister Margaret MacDiarmid to appoint a neutral party to inquire into the status of negotiations. It may well be that this individual can find reasons to be optimistic about continuing negotiations - or it may be that government will need to look at other ways to resolve the dispute.
Minister MacDiarmid has failed in her job. She has not appointed a neutral party. She has appointed an Assistant Deputy Minister within the Liberal Government to do the inquiry. Under no definition of the word "neutral" is this a neutral appointment. Claire Avison, also an Assistant Deputy Minister of the Liberal Government, has been at the bargaining table since June 2011 and has clearly stated that the government mandate is non-negotiable. A truly neutral party would find this pre-condition to bargaining as a major blockage to full free collective bargaining.
This past fall, we announced BC's new Education Plan to transform education and better prepare students for the 21st century. It has been a great success. Now, more than ever, we want teachers to work with all the educational partners to improve our system.
But to move forward, we need to restore some degree of normalcy to what remains of the school year. And I sincerely hope the neutral party, working with the employers and the teachers union, can help us find that constructive path.
Minister Abbott repeats the term "neutral party." I do not see any neutral party involved. This appointment is eroding the credibility of the Liberal government even beyond where it is now. The appointment of a similar "neutral party" in September of 2005 (also under a net zero mandate) resulted in legislation being introduced within 3 days of the final report from Assistant Deputy Minister Connolly. That report appeared to be pre-planned and biased and I don't see any reason to believe that this time it will be any different.
One point that I missed. Mr. Abbott says " I sincerely hope the neutral party, working with the employers and the teachers union, can help us find that constructive path." This statement is anything but sincere. He knows full well that the so-called "neutral party" has been given a yes or no task. He is to say yes they can reach agreement or no they can't. I don't see that it is within his mandate to do anything that could be termed constructive.
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