LOEWEN: Christy Clark and the price of ignorance
“Education costs money, but then so does ignorance,” — Sir Claus Moser
Christy Clark does not believe in public education.
If she did, her son would be enrolled in one of Vancouver’s many fine public schools. But he’s not. Young Hamish is enrolled at one of Vancouver’s many fine private schools. He’s a lucky lad. His school advertises much smaller class sizes than your average public school, just as it advertises instilling its young charges with community values, and the opportunity to participate in all kinds of great elective activities.
Christy Clark doesn’t pay the full cost of young Hamish’s private school education, however. We, as taxpayers, subsidize private school education to the tune of 30-50% each and every blessed year.
Perhaps you are unaware of that fact. Your hard-earned tax-dollars are siphoned off by the powers-that-be and diverted to wealthy B.C. citizens to defray the private school tuitions for their children.
Now don’t get hostile. I’m not suggesting you shouldn’t have a choice where you enroll your young scholars. But the majority of citizens rely on the public education system to deliver the goods and matriculate kids into the post-secondary world where they will pick up the reins of power and, hopefully, restore to health the system that preceding generations have so wantonly screwed up.
Which is why the current impasse is such a critical chapter in our provincial evolution.
Christy Clark and her cadre have attempted to frame the impasse in a negative light. They would have you believe that teachers suffer from an egregious form of self-entitlement, and their concerns are not about the quality of education.
They want you to believe it’s all about money. That teachers are a lazy lot and their productivity does not merit the wages they demand.
They are wrong, of course. It’s plain as day to me.
I travel the length and breadth of B.C.’s Interior, serving the needs of public and private school music educators and these people work their asses off. They put in countless hours, often for no remuneration, to inspire their students to that rare thing: Self discovery and curiosity about their World that they will need to succeed in the terrible years to come.
But Christy Clark and her cadre pay no heed to the B.C. Teachers Federation’s perennial appeals to bargain in good faith over class sizes, the number of teachers’ assistants available to cater to the growing number of special needs students in our schools or restoring funding to school boards so they can provide our kids with a quality education.
Christy Clark and her cadre believe that in one of the Dominion’s richest provinces, it’s okay to buck the national average spending per student by over $1,000 a year. Imagine the difference $1,000 per student would make in our schools.
They are guided, ultimately, by their political ideology. It does not value public education or public employees. The Supreme Court said as much in its recent ruling against the Province on the issue. They don’t share your values. It’s not their priority to negotiate a settlement with teachers.
They want you to believe the system is broken, and it’s the BCTF’s fault.
They are wrong, however. The system ain’t broke, sister. Christy Clark and her cadre are.
Unfortunately, parents and students in this province will suffer the effects of their ideology, and as cuts to education continue, we will succeed in one thing only: driving our kids out of the province to seek their fortunes elsewhere – especially if they want to join the ranks of their influential teachers, whose lot is not to be envied in the Lalaland of the Cruel and the Home of the Fearful.
This is the price of ignorance and its unintended consequences.
We deserve better, and so do our teachers and our kids.
— Having lost his 2,500 volume library in the Okanagan Mountain Park Fire, Jeffrey is beginning to fill the void by writing his own. Reach him at jeff.loewen(at)gmail.com
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17 responses
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Most of us _don’t_ have the choice to send our kids to private schools. Private school tuition is -THREE TIMES- the cost of most undergraduatetuition at UBC. And that’s after the government subsidies.UBC tuition: http://students.ubc.ca/enrolment/finances/tuition/undergraduate-tuition-feesCollingwood School: http://www.collingwood.org/page.cfm?p=680Crofton House School: http://www.croftonhouse.ca/uploaded/Portals/Parents/ResourcesYork house School: /Billing_Policy_and_Fee_Schedule_for_2013-2014_%281%29.pdf http://www.yorkhouse.ca/page.aspx?pid=321So, when public schools are overcrowded and under-supported, most of us don’t have any other options. And to find out that private schools, where class size and composition is a high priority, are getting some of the funding the government tells public school districts it just doesn’t have, that’s pretty enraging.Taxpayers without children still benefit from an educated populace, but we don’t benefit significantly from having the richest Canadians send their kids to private schools. And we don’t benefit at all from having our public schools, which are educating most of the next generation, being under-served by an under-funded education system.
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I urge any interested party to do a little research around neo-liberalism and the stance it takes on public education. In short, the idea is to open up the public system to the market with the idea that profits and business ethics are a sufficient basis for an education system. The directly funded public system only remains for those incorrigible poor folk who can’t pay private tuition. This is the current ethic all through the US and is coming to Canada through the likes of Ms. Clark and her cronies. Access to a good education is the basis of democracy and social justice. In my mind, battling this trend towards privatization of our schools should receive our most strident efforts. It’s a VERY scary idea and MAKE NO MISTAKE, this is Christy Clark’s agenda.
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One of the most insightful, provocatively informed articles yet. I want to read more by Jeffrey Loewen. He appears to be able to see through the rhetoric that clouds the perceptions of many political journalists and talk show hosts.
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Thank you for speaking out, just one minor thing I would like to point out. The BCTF is asking for the restoration of specialist teachers through caseload maximums. Each student with needs is given a designation which may entitle him to a teaching assistant or not. Before Bill 22, specialist teachers were hired according to how many designated students there were. However, the government is slowly, conveniently taking away designations and this leaves many students in a gray area where they are added tocaseloads of specialist teachers sometimes to over 80. Teachers are asking for ratios as it is impossible to teach 80 children or give the one on one time that many need.Specialist teachers become paper people, writing plans instead of using their training to teach. CUPE is the union that oversees special education assistants and they are under the direction of a classroom teacher and the specialist teacher. They bargain separately from teachers, but of course are also much needed.
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I am not a teacher but have 2 family members who are and a granddaugther who is hoping to find a job in the teaching profession..I find it appalling that there is so little respect for the teachers in this province..i don’t believe Christy Clar k is for children & families as she claims.
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I totally agree!Our kids deserve better and I am not an educator – I am a grandmother with ll grand-kids, 3 greats,all who are or have or will.attend PUBLIC SCHOOLS, and are doing and have done very well!
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Students need more educational support than one teacher in a class of 27+ with very limited learning assistance access, year+ waits for testing of learning disadvantaged children, and scarce teacher-librarian and counsellor support.Christy Clark and her government say, “it’s okay to buck the national average spending per student by over $1,000 a year. Imagine the difference $1,000 per student would make in our schools.”It is not about wages for the teachers – it is about the classrooms and the children.
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Amen, Mr. Loewen! We all deserve better than the Fiberals would allow – health care, education, community services…..
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