Clark's comments 'astonishing' to Burnaby teachers union

The B.C. Liberal government would have spent as much or more on education even without a 15-year court battle against the B.C. Teachers’ Federation, B.C. Liberal leader Christy Clark told the NOW in a sit-down interview during a campaign stop in Burnaby last week.

The Burnaby school district hired about 40 extra teachers this year and will hire another 125 next year to get class sizes and specialist-teacher ratios back up to 2002 levels as per a November Supreme Court of Canada decision that ruled to restore contract language illegally stripped by the government in 2002.

The extra hires will total about $15 million in Burnaby ($150 million provincially), but the Liberals would have spent that much or more, Clark said, even without the protracted court battle with the teachers’ union.

“We can afford it now,” she said. “The economy’s the fastest growing economy anywhere in the country. We’ve created more jobs than anywhere else in the country, so that means that we’re able to afford to make these investments, and education is the most important investment we make.”

Burnaby Teachers’ Association president Frank Bonvino called Clark’s comments “astonishing.”

“Actions speak louder than words,” he said. “In the past several years, even going back to when she was education minister, her intentions in terms of investing in public education have been clear. The only reason we see more teachers being hired now is directly as a result of the Supreme Court of Canada case, which has forced her into a position of compliance.”

Since teachers haven’t been able to bargain around class size and specialist-teacher ratios since 2002, Bonvino argued even the extra funding already announced isn’t enough to get the system on track.

He said a whole generation of students have been shortchanged under the B.C. Liberal government and Clark owes them an apology.

B.C. NDP leader John Horgan urged a similar apology from Clark during a televised leaders’ debate last week.

Asked by the NOW whether there was any apology needed for unconstitutionally stripping workers’ rights and spending taxpayer money on a 15-year court battle fighting the thing her government is now doing because it lost, Clark pointed to B.C. students’ performance on international assessments.

“Being number 1 in reading, number 3 in science and six in math in the world is proof positive that what we’ve been doing together as teachers, government and parents has been working for kids,” she said.

Bonvino, however, said the assessments Clark referenced are limited to educational outcomes that can be measured.

“It minimizes the value of fine arts programs, for example, and other programs of value,” he said.

Bonvino went on to say any success B.C. students have achieved has been in spite of the Liberal government, not because of it.

“Just think of how much better we could do if we were adequately funded,” he said.