I think the B.C Government should let the teachers bargain class size and composition, and as a matter of fact offer to give them whatever they want in these areas with the proviso that any gains which they make in these areas which result in increased costs over the status quo be promptly deducted from the current B.C. teachers’ overall wage and benefit package.

Charles, it seems you’re confused about the nature of classroom size and to whom those benefits accrue. Smaller classes and a limit on the number of special needs kids per class is a benefit to the children; the teachers still have to teach just as they would anyways, they just get to give more individual attention to the lessons and the children.
To the editor: the headline perhaps should have read, “Increases in Catholic School Registration Nearly Doubles”, since your actual headline suggests that the total number of registrations nearly doubled, not the number of ‘new’ registrants.

Isn’t UNBC & CNC concerned about next years students or quality of students. They are a business after all and this could hurt them as well.

Private schools are better.
Why you say?
Because they can get rid of lousy teachers. The bctf protects lousy teachers.
As far as class size. Some did the math the other day and there has not been a response to explain it.
500,000 students and 40,000 teachers = what?
12.5 students per teacher.
Where are the big class sizes you always hear about?
Shuffle some teachers around.
Get them TEACHINg!
Btw,
Great idea Charles. After all for the teachers, it is about the children after all! Right?

This is about the BCTF devising a formula that allows the most incompetent teachers to teach. To ascertain just where the bar must be set so the poorest teachers can still manage. Sort of like having a bevy of lousy air traffic controllers but being forced to utilize them, so a scheme must be devised where their work load reflects their capabilities.

“The teachers strike in B.C. may be responsible for a spike in registration for Catholic independent schools.”

It might. People have had enough of 30 years of BCTF antics.

lildigger are you sure private schools get rid of lousy teachers? Sure they can but do they? A certain religion didn’t do a very good job of getting rid of “lousy” priests did they?

A knee-jerk response with no forethought, will prevent a person from remembering private schools are businesses and as such, having incompetent teachers would lead to an exodus.

500,000 students and 40,000 teachers = what?
12.5 students per teacher.
———————————————————
I’m betting a quarter of the 40,000 are teachers on call (subs)… but I’m not on the teachers side, just making an observation.
With 10,000 subs.
500,000/30,000 is still 16.66 students per teacher.

I fully support the BC gov not accepting binding arbitration. Those are my tax dollars and I don’t support some third party mediator handing out millions of $$ of my money with the gov not having control of it.

lildigger: Those numbers are a bit out of whack as there’s 40,000 teachers, but there’s not near that many actually teaching full time. I read an article a while back breaking it down more accurately (think it was Van Sun). It still only came out to 22-25 per class.

“Isn’t UNBC & CNC concerned about next years students or quality of students.”

If the school classes are cancelled for the whole year we can expect a decline of 10-12% in total enrollments (i.e. affecting 1st year enrollmens badly). I haven’t heard of any plan by UNBC/CNC last week and as I earlier pointed out this is an opportunity for attracting new students if they can plan and manage this crisis effectively.

In private school it’s all about faith in god rather then teaching kids the real world.

Actually, private schools are about respect and respecting others. Without the temple and mosque vote the NDP wouldn’t come close to winning this province EVER. I wish the NDP would just come out publicly and ridicule all organized religion, regardless the culture, as their constituents seem to revel in. Buh-bye..as a viable political party.

Jimmy Hughes said, “I wish the NDP would just come out publicly and ridicule all organized religion.”

Are you not aware that Tommy Douglas was a minister of religion? Are you not aware that many New Democrats are believers, whether they are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Buddhist, or one of any number of other faiths? Some are, indeed, atheist or agnostic, as are members of other political parties. What I find incredibly nauseating is that you would try to libel the NDP with your assertion that they are opposed to all religion. That is so blatantly false that I just do not believe you would be stupid enough to believe it and must presume you made the accusation knowing it was not true.

I put my children in the Catholic school system because I went through it and enjoyed my experience. I am not a practicing Catholic but I do like that my children are enrolled in a system that teaches respect (like Jimmy Hughes stated above), that each grade has one 1 class, they do get rid of bad teachers and that really encourages parent participation in the school.

@ammonra. Gee..I was only pointing out the irony of just that. Sorry if it went over your head.

Typical buzzinga, we used to sing Oh Canada and God Save the Queen and say the Lord’s Prayer every morning in public school. Politically correctness is what has ruined things without any thought in to how to replace pride in where you live (patriotism) and respect

I really liked both comments from bornandbred and slinky. Couldn’t have said it better myself.

It shouldn’t be in public school anyways you have to be well rounded in public school and regardless of what faith you are they shouldn’t practice religion because some don’t believe in it

Jimmy Hughes, obviously I misread your intent.

Public schools should be free of any religion, since Canada is a religiously neutral country. Private schools, of course, can have religious teaching and indoctrination up to their eyeballs if they want. That;s nobody else’s business. I do object to subsidizing it though. Private schools should not be supported by provincial grants, whether of money or in any other form. Doing so go against the whole concept of religious neutrality as giving them money endorses their concepts. In addition, of course, the history of governments using religious schools in Canada has a repugnant reputation.

What utter nonsense: Canada is a destination of choice for those of faith escaping persecution from those who are more enlightened. Why just this week, the left’s poster boy for unqualified incompetence, paid a visit to a controversial mosque. Did he have a craving for halal food or do you think fishing for votes more like? Funny how NDP supporters have such a soft spot for Hamas and their extreme interpretation of the Koran, yet demonstrate nothing bust disdain for the anything remotely Christian.

Ammonra and buzzinga – so why do they have christmas concerts and the like in public schools?

Not sure of the numbers. Private schools receive far less per student from the provincial than public schools. The parents are taxpayers so why should the government not fund part lf their childrens education. Parent participation is encouraged in private schools. Public not so much.

slinky: “Ammonra and buzzinga – so why do they have christmas concerts and the like in public schools?”

Not for nothin’, but are they even called Christmas concerts anymore? I’m pretty sure they’re called were Holiday concerts now. The last one I saw made no mention of Jesus or religion.

I’m old enough to remember when the teacher read the bible before class and we all said the Lord’s Prayer IN PUBLIC SCHOOL! Could you even imagine that nowadays?

Slinky, the mid-winter festival predates Christmas by thousands of years. Christmas celebrations in public schools are non-religious focusing on Santa Clause with Jingle Bells rather than Mary’s Boy Child. It is a cultural event not a religious one, but you know this since we get complaints about it on this site every year with comments complaining about taking Christ out of Christmas.

Oldcoot, the amount of support is irrelevant. Even if it were one dollar it would be inappropriate. Tax money should not go to support religious teaching of any religion.

I’m wary of commenting on your statements about Hamas and the NDP, Jimmy, but not all New Democrats support Gaza. Some of us think both sides should be pressured into negotiating a peace settlement by the powers that be instead of laying blame. I have expressed that point on this side for almost 10 years now. Let me also remind you that it is Liberals who are being charged with offenses under the elections act for the ethnic outreach scandal, not New Democrats. Did you ignore that deliberately?

I am not sure where the ndp supports Gaza idea comes from, but the facts are Muclair is a firm supporter of Israel just like our Prime Minister. Muclair’s wife is Jewish and a big supporter of zionism. Muclair equates support for Gaza with anti-semetism and has even kicked people out of the ndp party for supporting the Palestinians. The facts are that all three main political parties in Canada have zero tolerance for anyone that doesn’t have unconditional support for Israel. We are not allowed to have independent sovereign politics when it comes to anything that involves Israel… it is almost the driving force behind the political party system here in Canada.

If we are talking statistics then what about the fact that in BC’s biggest vote rich urban centers less then half their current residents where even born in BC. Most voters in BC’s biggest cities never even attended the BC primary school system, so they have no loyalty to public primary education as a bedrock to a meritocracy free enterprise that allows upward mobility through the classes of society.

Lets face it that in the last thirty years immigration to BC has not been what it once was based on hard working class immigrants working their way up through society often from the bottom hoping to someday create a better life for their offspring.

Immigration to BC in the last thirty years has been all about realestate and tax arbitrage, where citizenship and the ability to vote has been sold to the highest bidders or basically anyone capable of a million dollar investment. Loyalty to Canada, Canadian values, and the primary education system or of secondary concern for these kinds of new citizens. If we ever had another great war we would have a massive lot of baggage to carry we didn’t have last time around and its questionable we could even mobilize again in this day and age.

These ‘investment Canadians’ only care about themselves. They may vote for increases to healthcare spending, but not primary education. The primary concern for ‘investment Canadians’ is tax cuts both personal and corporate… they have a million dollar investment that they need to recover. Restrict upward mobility with a broken primary education system, the highest tuition fees in the country, and specialized certifications for just about everything is part of the agenda for globalist monopoly capitalist Canadians of convenience that are more and more calling the shots behind the scene the 330 days our legislature is not in sitting.

We sold our country and the new owners don’t view primary education as a top priority when they are only here three months of the year anyways.

Quebec MP was forced out of the ndp party and forced to sit as an independent (I know not reported in the mainstream media), because she was Palestinian by birth and objected to the latest Israeli assault on Gaza.

I think all the unions should get behind the teachers on the principal of the court cases the BCTF has won in court. Composition considerations aside, when we have a government that ignores Charter issues as if the court decisions are optional, and can be overruled through a treaty or contract, then we have set a horrible new standard for making our constitution irrelevant.

We see it with Harper’s new international investment treaties that allow foreign tribunals to rule over the Canadian Supreme Court in decisions from our elected bodies that can be seen to impinge on globalist profits. This is the agenda of globalists that have no interest in Canadian law and order and the rule of law in Canada.

If the unions surrender this fight and its precedence, then they are essentially putting up the flag of surrender for all that they fought for the last hundred years.

Eagleone, the NDP does not expel members for not supporting Israel nor for supporting Gaza, nor people like me who prefer to support neither but promote a settlement by agreement. The policy of the NDP is for a two state solution and those representing the NDP are expected to abide by that. If you are not representing the NDP you can say pretty much what you like as long as it is not racist (anti-Jewish or anti-Palestinian, both of whom are semitic, of course).

So the ndp does not share Canadian values. How can they support a racist two state solution and then not call themselves racist? Israel just this week annexed another 200 square km of the West bank for settlements as punishment to hamas for the Gaza conflict (West Bank had nothing to do with hamas)… how does that enable a two state solution? The two state solution is about peace until the land can be ethnically cleansed and that is about it.

If the ndp supported Canadian values than they would support equal rights for all under the law… basically the rule of law for everyone, and equal rights to be recognized as a citizen with the human rights that apply to being human and a citizen with the right to vote. Hyphenating who has rights based on ethnocentric exceptionalism is the root of racism and this is what the two state fairy tale is all about.

The two state solution IMO is why they have wars in Israel.