Dear Editor:
Education Minister Peter Fassbender and Premier Christy Clark have stated numerous times that the B.C. Teachers' Federation needs to be "realistic."
I am a teacher and I have a reality check for them. The reality of years of gross underfunding has resulted in closed schools, layoffs of specialist teachers, massive fundraising efforts by parents for the most basic necessities, and struggling students slipping through the cracks.
The newly built school I will be working in this year will not have a playground as there was not enough money in the budget. These are only a few examples of our reality.
It isn't unrealistic to ask for more specialist teachers, whom the government deems part of our "benefits."
E80 guarantees nothing in terms of helping students who need ongoing support. I wonder every day of this labour dispute how the government's view of reality is so far from the truth?
The BCTF is being realistic, it's the government that is choosing to ignore the true conditions facing public education.
Che-Yin McGowan, by email
