Editor:
Re: Picket lines set to return on Monday, May 30
If it is true that some thoughts are best left unsaid, then we are being dishonest with each other. There are valid criticisms to be made of both sides in the current school row. Despite both parties using children as pawns, this dispute is ultimately about money.
I support the teachers. I hate Christy Clark as much as they do. Their profession is vital and stressful and they deserve a pay raise. However, that does not mean I endorse the lunatic policies of the B.C. Teachers' Federation that habitually supports the NDP, which is also guilty of imposing contracts by legislation.
If the union is committed to crafting a "fair settlement," then it should state what concessions it will make to obtain that raise. Over $5 billion is spent on public education in this province. What initiatives has the BCTF ever undertaken to save the public money? None that I know.
If teachers do get a raise, how will the school districts pay for it out of their finite budgets? The province could defray the cost by eliminating subsidies to private schools (people are free to bankrupt themselves paying the tuition) and closing special accounts.
Of course, the law has to be changed and Clark is keen to continue the status quo. The Liberals deceive the public by segregating money from general revenue into the Learning Improvement Fund and Children's Education Fund and falsely claim them as "new investments."
School districts need that money immediately but the Liberals, who advocate regulatory reduction, refuse to give our elected trustees any fiscal latitude and increase central control of education financing. That is tyranny. Why are the school districts not resisting it? This is an election year for school trustees. Hopefully the acrimony will motivate citizens to vote in record levels unlike in the past and choose wisely.
Steven Austin
