Dear Editor:
Re: Teachers just don't get it, Letters to the editor, Burnaby NOW, Sept. 10.
It's obvious that Tim Savage does not support teachers in their negotiations with the government. I feel I need to respond to some of the misinformation in his letter to the editor.
Yes, the Liberals promised a balanced budget in their election platform, but did they mention that that meant doubling the provincial debt? Or that education would only make up 15 per cent of the provincial budget? Compare that to the 1960s when education was 33 per cent of the budget to show that education spending has not kept up with inflation. And it's showing in our classrooms.
Tim claims that teachers have "shown defiance" to this government in its attempts to negotiate. In fact, it's the other way around. It's the government who refused to meet with the BCTF at the table. The two sides met only once this summer because Jim Iker was persistent in calling Peter Cameron to ask for a meeting date. Peter Fassbender and Peter Cameron kept stalling all summer. The BCTF has asked for arbitration not once but twice, but both times the government said "No, thanks" because they know any arbitrator with any sense of the educational situation of the past decade would give the teachers what they're asking for (and probably more) because the system is in such need.
He claims that teachers "seem unwilling to effectively manage the vast funds." Well, those vast funds
have dwindled over the years (see my first point above) and many operating costs have been downloaded to the school boards from the government without a corresponding increase in funding.
In real terms, that means that not everyone in a class may get a textbook, schools run out of copy paper, and let's turn off the classroom lights to save on our electrical bill. There are many more examples of scrimping and saving that teachers and administrators have had to do in order to do "more with less."
In many jobs, people take pens and other office supplies home from work; teachers bring supplies to work because they need to. Ask a teacher what he/she spends on her classroom in a year. It's not tax-deductible, either (I've asked).
As for his drive-by tactic of a "thumbs-down" (or was that a "finger up"?), he sounds like the bully who bullies repeatedly then is surprised when his victims react.
We're teachers, not doormats. We defend ourselves and the current educational system because who else will? Teachers do that with a strike, forfeiting their income to stand up to the biggest bully - the government.
This government needs to fund education properly. Our province can afford to but they choose not to. Meanwhile, teachers will continue to advocate for their students and for themselves.
Aldina Isbister, Burnaby
