Government, Teachers Strike $50 Million Deal
Victoria, B.C. – More supports are coming to B.C.’s classrooms.
This after the provincial government and the BC Public School Employer’s Association announced they’ve reached an agreement with the BCTF to provide school districts with $50 million to immediately begin hiring teachers and improve student supports.
“The funding is for the 2016-17 school year and is equivalent to compensation for approximately 1,100 teachers,” reads a news release from the Ministry of Education. “The actual number of teachers hired will be determined by districts, local unions, and the hiring process.”
Victoria says the measures are “The first step in responding to the decision from the Supreme Court of Canada late last year.”
The ministry says the funding will be applied to the following areas:
- Hiring additional classroom school teachers this year where it is feasible to do so given current timetable, physical space and labour supply limitations.
- Hiring additional speciality teachers where its feasible including special education teachers, speech language pathologists, behaviour specialist, school psychologists, Aboriginal support teachers, counsellors, ELL and teacher librarians.
- Where feasible, it may go to add additional teachers during the current school year. The money may also be used to fund district-level capacity building opportunities such as upgrading existing teacher qualifications during the current school year, teacher recruitment programs and teacher mentoring programs.
The government says the so-called “priority measures Memorandum of Agreement” gives districts “flexibility to work with their local teachers’ union to determine how best to use the funding to provide additional education services for students by hiring new teachers and specialist teachers.”
The parties continue to meet and jointly review the old contract language as well as current district-level information on classrooms and composition. No timetable on a final agreement has been given.
Victoria says the $50 million is “new money” in addition to the $5.1 billion invested in public education in B.C. which includes $100 million in the learning improvement fund that is already in place to hire more teachers and education assistants.
Both Education Minister Mike Bernier and BCTF president Glen Hansman plan to address the agreement later this afternoon.
Comments
If you think crusty and the liberals hated teachers before…just wait….lol
Explain why they “hate” teachers! Not giving in to every demand is hate?
Illegally ripping up the contract …then wasting millions of tax dollars in court costs even though each time the gov was found at fault…
I think it’s hating what the majority of the taxpayers voted for.
And the NDP are way better eh. I will still vote for Christy. Bottom line is a party is a party, they will always get half of the populace peeved no matter what issue is brought up. No way will I vote for that weak kneed NDPer.
True dat!
Thank you teachers for getting more funding for our public education system and improving supports for our students!
PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT #4: Many on here are under the “false” assumption that teachers initiate strike action. The last teachers strike was not caused by the teachers, but was initiated by the Christy Clark Government. “The court Monday found a more sinister motive. The B.C. Liberal government thought that a teachers strike would give it a political advantage, Justice Griffin found, and this mindset set bargaining up for failure and made disruption in the public-school system inevitable.”
ht tp://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/analysis-court-ruling-a-major-blow-to-clarks-strategy-with-teachers/article16536749/
No need to thank me for setting the record straight.
I think we tend to forget that teachers are Government Employee’s and those they negotiate with are Government employee’s, so at the end of the day they are arguing among themselves how they should divide the tax pie.
A Civil Servant by any other name is still a Civil Servant. In other words all these people work for the tax payers of BC. When will tax payers get a break??
When will taxpayers get a break ? Never, I wonder who is hating us.
Thank you teachers and the court system for bringing this vindictive premier to justice. I am all for a better education system but with our premier it is all about priorities where our tax dollars are being spent and education is not one of hers. Maybe she can dip into the LNG piggy bank.
You folks can complain about this Govt. all you like. The truth is there isn’t a viable alternative….which truly is a shame. I’m no fan of these Liberals but I’ll be damned if I vote NDP.
I guess this one voter is out of luck.
When you see how much corruption that has happened in this province it is time to move the BC Libs. out of office. Why would you want another 4 yrs of corruption and lies.
16 years and the costs and job loss in manufacturing sector has been unreal. If the Province is doing so good why the increase in user fees plus plus. But can find 100 million for advertisements to promote themselves
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