The media would like everyone to think it is only a money issue. I wish it was, it would a lot simpler for us to understand. Please report the whole story and the implication of Bill 22. I am a teacher and i am deeply disturbed by what is not reported in the media. I am truly worried for my son who will be entering Grade 4 next year, where there is no more provision for a class size limit. He is just a regular joe, not needing any special services but his school is borderline on numbers and will probably be one where a classroom will be cut. That means 34 students in his split class. It may be alright and it may not but it worries me. I am also worried that where special needs were assigned specific time with a specialised teachers (mandated time by gouv), that time is no longer provided. I personnaly understand that we are in times of great economic uncertainty but it worries me to the end for my own son who is in the public system right now. Must say that private schools are looking better and better right now. Why not, since our taxes fund 85% of private schools in this province and you get a tax break on tuition. In fact, why are our taxes funding private schools? I am not yet critizing this decision, just wondering.

You can delude yourself into thinking it’s not a money issue if it makes you feel better but we all know the reality. I wonder: If the BCTF was offered the non-monetary things that would ostensibly help the students, but not the money that they’re looking for, would the membership vote in favour of it?

Of course not, because whether the teachers or their union brethren will admit it it’s all about the money. “The Students” are just a convenient mechanism for deflection and obfuscation.

How true ram

I agree that all sides of Bill 22 need to be reported.
30+ kids to a class is too many.
You would not send your child to a daycare with a ratio of 30 children to one caregiver. Why is it acceptable to send your child to a school with the same ratio?

Well Sue, once we’ve paid the teachers salaries and their absurd benefits there’s not a whole hell of a lot left over to address the real problems.

We need the private schools so that at least some of the kids are getting a decent education. We have to think to the future and I for one don’t mind funding them.

Class size is certainly an issue, but there are other issues as well. The terms of the mediation are that teachers are to negotiate away rights around hiring and firing, a fair evaluation process, and an end to professional development, or the government will simply legislate it in August. The terms of the so-called mediation are that we either negotiate away our rights, or they will be taken away. And in the future, teachers will not be able to even work to rule, even in a limited fashion, in negotiations.

Roll over my contract, with net-zero for two years-I won’t be happy, but I can live with it. But I’m being ordered to not only take net zero, but lose any protection around job security I now have. In exchange for nothing.

Look a little closer and you will see that this bill is not designed to help education. This is meant to be a wedge issue for the Liberals, and to show the small c conservatives out there that the Liberals can be just as right wing as John Cummins Conservatives. The Liberals are using your children to get votes.

When we went into job action last fall, teachers gave a very limited mandate to the BCTF-as much as possible, keep kids out of the dispute. So we continued to teach, we continued to coach. No report cards, true, but I have sent more reports to parents this year than any other in my career.

I’ll take net-zero, but I won’t give up my job protections (despite the public perception, they work as is right now) and I will not agree to a system that says to parents that they may see their children in a class of 40 with 10 or more students with special needs. That’s what can happen under Bill 22. You don’t have to believe me-just check out the bill

I never said money was not an issue. I said it is not the only one.

I feel the same way Flash. Ou staff discussed the same thing last Monday.

I totally support the teachers. This Fiberal gov’t is totally screwing them. Who in their right mind can go for 3 years without at least an annual cost of living increase? We all deserve at least that and I’m willing to pay more taxes for them to get it. We don’t see the politicians taking a zero increase now do we or opting out of their very expensive pension plan.

Because it’s been brought up… why are private schools being publicly funded? If they are private, they should be funded with 100% private funds.

Kinda pisses me off that my tax money is being used to support a two-tier elitist education system.

If you want your child to go to a private school, then pay for it yourself.

I am so sick of the Government thinking that what they are doing is right! A Bill that makes it illegal to strike!? They only thought of that in a panic because teachers were wanting to strike, and the Government knows that if the Teachers strike, then their would be mass confusion and panic as parents and care-providers scramble to find child care.

In all honesty, right now, I just want the teachers paid, and I want my daughter to go to school. I want her to learn at her full potential, and I really want a bloody report card thats not check marks or numbers 1-5, saying how well she’s doing.

I want her to be able to bring home her school work, and explain it, and tell me how much she is learning.

What’s sad, is most of that right there, is not happening because of Teachers actions. There have been NO field Trips so far this year.

I find it sad the Government is deciding that it’s going to be illegal for teachers to strike. No contract since June 2011? In what right mind would that actually work? Teachers rely on those contracts, and ensures we have teachers for more than a year.

Yes, it may sound outrageous for our teachers to demand 15% plus other things, but in reality, why not?

The Government officials give themselves a nice fat salary, even to those who just started, as well as those who quit are given a nice severance package or retirement package. Not only that, the Government has cut finding for public schools, ensuring several of them close permemntly.

In Prince George Alone, since 2002, there have been 25 schools closed!! Does that sound right or fair? Those teachers lost their jobs, or travelled elsewhere. Those students had to go to other schools, outside their norm range, and possibly pay additional funds for bussing!

I for one support these teachers. I’m so sick of the government.

TEACHERS! STRIKE! ALL OF THE TEACHERS IN BC, JUST STRIKE AND SHOW THE GOVERNMENT THEY CAN’T BULLY YOU! FUNNY REALLY, SINCE YESTERDAY WAS ANTI-BULLYING DAY, THE GOVERNMENT IS THE ONE DOING THE BULLYING…

TEACHERS…STRIKE…

I SUPPORT ALL BC TEACHERS

Strike you bet, solidarity marches, province wide general strikes….this govt is due to be told loud and clear that you have to respect working people!!

Parents who send their children to private schools pay taxes just like you. So why should their children not receive funding. I believe the province pays somewhere around 50% less per student in the private system than the public system. So who is subsidizing whom?

Private should be private all the way. You do get tax deductions for your tuition expensese don’t you? Why should you get two subsidies? One for your private school, and another through the tax system??

Why not a GENERAL STRIKE?

If you support a teacher, strike with them, bring your kids and show them political advocacy at an early age so they might not have to go through a similar fight in the future.

Where did the government find the money for the great add campaign for the “Education Improvement Act?” Why is it being wasted on non-sense?

We can all see through the ‘smoke and mirrors’ and know that the government isn’t representing it’s population. Canada was founded on that very principle and yet the current government seems to need a short history lesson. I hope they start making positive changes if they expect to be employed any longer. Watch out or you might get stuck teaching at a public school!

My child does not go to a private school. Do some research, grab a calculator and do the math.

while we’re at it, why should people without children or senior citizens have to pay school taxes? we’re never gonna use the schools

Boomers got it right.

And on class size issue, why is 30 the magic number across the board? That is ridiculous. When I was in Gr12 there was 30ish kids in my math class. First year math at UBC has 800+ kids in a class. Is there than big a difference between Gr12 and 1st year kids? I think not.

There should be a sliding scale – maybe 20 or 30 kids in a grade 3 class, but why not 70 or 80 kids in a grade 12 english class? Pay a teacher the big bucks to run the class and have lower paid assistants to do some behind the scenes work. Most every other occupation works this way and teaching is not “special”.

rayban68… I think your sliding scale on class size is an excellent idea. I would rather the little ones had fewer distractions and better individual attention.

If by Grade 11, the student hasn’t figured out how to concentrate on their own without distraction, then there’s other problems at hand.

“why not 70 or 80 kids in a grade 12 english class”

People can read on their own …. well, some can. They do not need a talking head in front of a mass of people communicating in one direction only. Dialogue cannot be had in a class with 80 or 800. Of course, we could get students to tweet with the teacher/professor as Abbott did. ;-)

It seems to me that the purpose of an English Literature class at that level is to engage in an exchange of ideas. Talking about the context in which an author wrote certain books, the environment which the author grew up in, all those things that potentially add to the enjoyment of the story other than just the sotry itself.

Now, if one is reading “as the world turns” pocket novels and that is the level of literature “appreciation” which we teach to people in grade 12 and first year university, then why bother having classes at all? Just provide a reading list and a few assignments and write book reports.

The “teacher” can then spend the “teaching” time figuring out whether the report is written by the student or by someone else. :-)

I had two good courses in English Literature. One was grade 13 Ontario, when the curriculum finally came around to an exploratory review of literature based on looking at the roots of writing in the last 100 years. What happened in that class could not happen in a class of 80, let alone 800. (BTW, anyone who keeps on attending those after the first lecture, needs their head examined, in my opinion, and should not be in University but rather take distance education from UCLA or some place.).

The second course was when I was in my first year of a professional faculty, when we had a small class of 25 which was taught by the head of the English Department and lead Professor of English Literture.

The philosphy of that approach by that University was that we were obviously not majoring in English Literature and that this was a time to show us the deeper meaning of Literature in our society, the types of writings which made social change and which were influenced by social change. Yes, there are authors out there who write more than just Harlequin romances.

I have never forgotten the lessons of those two classes, which is great because that was their objective.

For the life of me, I do not understand why it took that long to get to the real meat of English Literature. The previous years were simply babysitting years when I look back on it.