More than 150 people rallied to show their support for local teachers and the BC Teachers’ Federation (BCTF)’s fight with the provincial government.
After being out on the picket lines for more than a week, the contract dispute between the teachers and provincial government seems to be no closer to resolution. Education minister Peter Fassbender said in a press conference Thursday, June 26 that despite the teachers’ call to bring in a mediator the two sides are “miles apart.”
The crowd, gathered at Willingdon South Wednesday afternoon, June 25, heard speeches from education leaders, teachers and parents who have concerns about the state and future of publicly funded schooling. Folk musician Phil Williams performed songs for the crowd as they stood in the afternoon heat.
“Make no mistake we are in the fight of our lives to protect the integrity of the public school system,” Cathy Fisher, president of Powell River and District Teachers’ Association, said to the rally attendees.
The real opponent to public education is the Global Education Reform movement which aims for standardization, corporate management models, test-based accountability policies, underfunding, de-professionalization and privatization, said Fisher.
“We’re all too familiar with this movement here in BC,” she said.
Fisher added that she hopes the government can change its perspective on supporting public infrastructure.
“They talk about investing in LNG [liquified natural gas] and other similar initiatives, but they refer to supporting public infrastructure as an expense,” she said.
She called on the BC government to make funding public education a priority.
“Other provinces have found the money to properly fund education and BC can too,” she said. “It’s a very strong investment to make and we need to reverse 12 years of cuts.”
She promised that the teachers’ union would keep pushing for an end to overcrowded classes, providing help for students with special needs and giving all students the resources they need to learn.
“We’re going to continue to fight for our kids, our classrooms and our rights,” she said.
Jeanette Scott, chairperson of the Powell River Board of Education spoke to the crowd on behalf of the board.
“I’m not happy that we have to have such a rally,” said Scott who added that government cutbacks have taken a toll.
She said that confidence in the effectiveness of the system has diminished over the past 30 years as the government has slowed the flow of money to public schools.
Prior to 1977, 100 per cent of school taxes collected went to support public schools, but today private schools are being funded with up to 50 per cent of local school operating grants, she said.
“Privately run schools educate only 12 per cent of the K-12 students in the province, yet since 2005 private school funding has grown by 45.6 per cent while public school funding has increased by less than 17 per cent,” added Scott. This has left BC’s 60 boards of education in a tough spot. “School boards are left with no choice but to cut services and continue to foster economic and social inequality that schools are intended to dispel,” she said.
A strong, publicly funded education system challenges social inequality by giving a leg up to low-income families, she added.
“Today as we see the proportion of children in this province living in poverty increasing,” Scott said,” surely it’s imperative that we create educational opportunities which allow young people to break the cycle of poverty, to gain the knowledge and skills to become active and creative citizens.”
