Times Colonist Editorial:Ten-year deal no path to peace

 Times Colonist - Ten-year deal no path to peace:

Far from creating 10 years of peace, Premier Christy Clark’s insistence on a longer-term contract with B.C.’s teachers guarantees four more years of bitter wrangling. 

In January, Clark said she would seek a 10-year labour deal with teachers in which salary increases would be indexed to increases received by other public-sector employees, calling it a framework that would bring a decade of stability to classrooms. Teachers would still have the right to strike, but not over wages.
Predictably, the plan was quickly dismissed by the B.C. Teachers’ Federation as an election ploy.
Meanwhile, the BCTF and the B.C. Public School Employers Association went to work figuring out a mutually acceptable structure for contract negotiations, and appeared to have developed a respectful atmosphere. The two sides were scheduled to sit down for more talks this week, but Clark has poked a stick into the hornets’ nest by resurrecting the idea of a long-term agreement with teachers.
The premier claims she has a mandate to pursue the 10-year deal, but it was not an election issue. The B.C. Liberals’ platform was focused on the economy, holding the line on taxes and paying down the debt. Besides, how can anyone say British Columbians voted for a particular plank in a platform? It’s just as likely they were voting against the New Democrats as they were for anything in particular offered by the Liberals.
Far from fostering peace, Clark’s plan will only anger teachers further. The government already wields the big club — the ability to legislate the teachers back to work — and imposing an unpalatable and unworkable framework on the negotiations won’t smooth the rough relationship between government and teachers. It’s disrespectful and heavy-handed.
The Liberals’ strengthened majority might give Clark new muscle in telling government what to do, but she can’t tell teachers how to think and feel.
A 10-year agreement would be bad for both sides. No one knows what the economy and the demographics will be like 10 years down the road.
One of the main reasons for periodic negotiations is to work out an agreement that takes into consideration changing conditions.
Clark is not wrong in wanting labour peace for B.C.’s schools. Others want it, too — that’s what motivated the school boards and teachers to work out a new and respectful approach to bargaining. It would not have created an instant Shangri-La in which everyone was happy and everyone had everything they wanted, but it was a step in the right direction.
Clark should leave well enough alone. There’s no shame in proposing a new plan. The shame is in clinging to that plan long after it’s obvious the plan is unworkable.
The relationship between government and teachers has been strained for many years. If Clark wants 10 years of labour peace — and it’s a commendable goal — she should seek to build a trustful, respectful relationship with teachers, one in which hard bargaining can take place without acrimony. That can’t happen if she unilaterally imposes new rules on the negotiating process.
It’s disturbing that the premier thinks she can put out the fire by throwing gasoline on it.
 

http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/editorial-ten-year-deal-no-path-to-peace-1.306825

Editorial: Education Issues

Education was hardly a burning issue in the provincial election, leaving many educators, trustees and administrators — not to mention parents — scratching their heads.

Cash-strapped school districts from Prince George to New Westminster, including School District 43, were expecting to hear something specific about a long-term vision for funding a 21st century education system. But whatever was in the political kit bags of the two party front-runners was lost in debates over who would better handle the economy.

Meanwhile, districts across the province are slashing budgets to keep spending in line with funding. SD43’s funding problems are magnified by revenue and expense miscalculations during last year’s budget process. But SD43 isn’t the only district cutting back and few would argue that the education system is awash in cash.

Rather, it is merely holding the line while expectations for smaller classes, support for special needs and help for children with learning disabilities, technology and other demands increase.

So where was the talk about building a sustainable funding system for schools? Where was the leadership given last year’s labour unrest that resulted in many clubs and sporting events being cancelled?

It was drowned out by political recriminations on both sides. Now though, Premier Christy Clark is re-floating an earlier trial balloon to seek a 10-year labour agreement with teachers. While it’s true that labour peace would surely benefit the education system, it’s hard to see how making the BCTF eat crow so soon after the election (many teachers thought they’d be dealing with a friendly NDP government) is going to bring this about. And because the issue hardly came up, it’s hard to argue the 10-year deal is part of her mandate.

For many people, what’s needed first is a new, more equitable funding formula that doesn’t pit urban school districts against rural districts for scarce cash. Once a long-term vision for funding is revealed, then Clark might be in a better position to work with teachers on the vaunted 10-year labour deal.

But until then, all she’ll accomplish with re-writing the teachers’ labour contract is more instability in schools.

So, um, good luck with that.


Via http://www.tricitynews.com/opinion/209560321.html

Vancouver Sun Editorial: New election gag law a pointless assault on our free speech

Vancouver Sun - Editorial
May 2, 2012



There are so many appropriate words to describe the provincial government’s decision to try once again to bring in an election gag law that will stand up in court, it’s hard to know where to start. But we will take a stab at it.


Obstinate, ill-advised, hypocritical, pointless, anti-democratic and short-sighted, to name just a few.


This is the second time the Liberals have tried to impose a gag law that covers the period before a campaign starts. Their earlier attempt was struck down by the courts, as was a previous version enacted by the NDP government in the 1990s. The last attempt failed in part because it could have limited the ability of third parties to comment on the legislature while it was sitting.


Now the government is trying again with amendments that aren’t even being given the profile of their own act, but are being slipped through as part of a housekeeping bill that deals with half a dozen other issues at the same time.


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Globe & Mail: Fraser Institute flunks on grading high schools

Globe and Mail
Gary Mason
May 1, 2012

The teachers at Hazelton Secondary quit worrying about the Fraser Institute’s rankings of B.C. high schools a long time ago.

When the conservative think tank started publishing its report card on B.C. schools years ago, teachers there used to do a slow burn. The schools at the top were always private institutions or public ones on the west side of Vancouver that had a wealth of resources most other schools could only dream of having.

The schools at the bottom of the rankings were always ones like theirs, in mostly aboriginal communities.

Years later and little has changed with the ratings.

It’s easy to understand why the Fraser Institute’s grading system infuriates so many people. Comparing schools like Hazelton to a private college or a high school from any of the dozens and dozens of affluent neighbourhoods in the province that has none of their problems is absurd.

The top-ranked high school in B.C. for the second year in a row is York House, an all-girls academy on Vancouver’s west side. The Fraser Institute’s ratings are based on a range of indicators. For instance, according to the report, the percentage of students at York House who failed a provincial exam in 2010-11 was zero. The graduation rate at the school for the year measured was 100 per cent.

In recent years, the report added a new rating, one based on the average parental-employment income in each student’s family. A positive number, according to the report, suggests that the school is effective in enabling its students to succeed regardless of their family’s characteristics.

York House got a positive score of 2.0, based on an average family income of $118,000.

Let’s compare that to Hazelton Secondary, located in northwestern B.C.

Hazelton finished 278th out of 280 high schools ranked. But then, it’s always near the bottom. About 35 per cent of its students failed provincial exams. According to the Fraser Institute, even when you factor in the family background of the students at the school, it still does poorly. It received a mark of minus 4.1 based on an average parental income of $33,400.

What that suggests to me is that even when the impoverished backgrounds of the Hazelton students are factored in, the school is still underperforming.

What an insult that is to the teachers there, who have among the hardest jobs in the province.

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