A Surrey Teacher's poem - I will always be a teacher

Michelle Mirabueno, a Grade 1 teacher at Woodland Park Elementary in Surrey, wrote this poem in response to the news of ‪#‎ChristyClarksLockout‬

I will always be a teacher

You may try and cut our wages
Threaten, bully and scare
Without stepping in our classrooms
To see why we fight and care

I will still teach all my students
I love the job I do
I teach my children to stand up for themselves
When they cross paths with bullies like you

We will not back down in defeat
We will not let this go
You make a mockery of what we do
Turning it into a media show

My classroom is not for sale
I will not sell out the children's needs
For every child is worth the fight
Despite the trouble this may lead

I wish you had the teachers
Who would have fought for your needs too
Because somewhere down the line
A teacher helped you become you

I will always be a teacher
I will always fight the fight
To ensure the children of our world
Can learn what's wrong from right

So when they grow and make a choice
Of what they'd like to do
Surely one of them will have more integrity
To do the job in place of you

Excellent Letter from a 'very very annoyed parent'

From Kristina Barnett Lee

The Honorable Peter Fassbender, Min Ed
The Honorable Christy Clark, Premier
Mr Douglas Horne, MLA Coquitlam-Burke Mountain

Dear Sirs and Madam,

I write today to convey my extreme disgust with the manner in which the education system is being treated by your government. The conduct you have displayed with regards to the future of our children’s education is reprehensible. You claim to put “Families First” and to hold the needs of the children above all else, and yet there are children in our system who have challenges and special needs who are being lost because you won’t fund the help that they so desperately need. Your condescension toward teachers is easily traceable back to 2002 when, as Education Minister, Premier Clark removed the teacher’s right to bargain about learning and working conditions by enacting Bills 27 and 28 - action which has since been deemed by the Supreme Court of BC to have been a violation of Charter rights. Undaunted by the illegality of your position, your government enacted Bill 22, once again removing class composition, amongst other things, as an issue about which teachers have any say. Your government is clearly hoping that we are stupid enough to have forgotten that only 3 months ago Madam Justice Susan Griffin ruled that Bill 22 was also unconstitutional, found you guilty of bargaining in bad faith, and accused you of attempting to provoke a strike for political gain. Clearly the children are merely pawns in your political game of chess, and I am nauseated by the cynicism and Machiavellian ideals permeating your caucus.

When a government requires a School District to submit a balanced budget, but makes no budgetary allowance for increases in fuel costs, electricity costs, or tax increases, that government knows that the only way the District can possibly submit a balanced budget is by making cuts to our children’s education services.
When a government announces new schools, but does not actually provide capital funding or build them, resulting in the school district having to use millions of dollars from their operating budget to purchase, maintain, and service portable classrooms, that government knows that the only way the District can possibly submit a balanced budget is by making cuts to our children’s education services.
When a government knows that enrolment is declining, funds schools on a “per student” basis, and it costs virtually the same amount in fuel, electricity, and staffing to have 480 kids in a school vs 500 kids in a school, that government knows that the only way the District can possibly submit a balanced budget is by making cuts to our children’s education services.
When a government abruptly changes policy for funding of school seismic upgrading and announces that School Districts will have to pay for up to half the costs of putting our children in safe structures, that government knows that the only way the District can possibly submit a balanced budget is by making cuts to our children’s education services.

Your government would have us believe that teachers are demanding too high of a wage increase, and yet in the past dozen years teachers saw a 7.5% increase from their 2002 contract, a 0% increase from their 2005 contract, and a 16% increase from their 2006 contract. In those same dozen years, the benchmark price of real estate has increased 100-200% (depending on the region), BCHydro rates have increased by 40% (from an average of $70/mo to an average of $98/mo, after correction for inflation), gasoline prices have increased by 80-100% (from fluctuating around $0.70-0.80/L to fluctuating around $1.35-1.50/L), and the cost of feeding a family of 4 in BC has gone up 38.7% (from $626 to $868 per month). Clearly the increases in a teacher’s pay are not keeping up with the increases in the cost of living.

The BCPSEA and BCTF have failed to reach an agreement (which is hardly a surprise considering that Carole Taylor’s 2006 deal has been the only freely negotiated contract that the two sides have reached in the 27 years since Mr VanderZalm’s SoCreds gave teachers the right to strike) and so the teachers have escalated their action to a rotating strike. The lockout notice that the government has countered with is shocking and its logical underpinnings are convoluted, to say the least. While maintaining that children should not be put in the middle, the government has done exactly that by ensuring that teachers can not provide before- or after-school preparation or assistance to children. This does nothing BUT penalize the children, and once again lays bare the viciousness of this government’s intention to provoke action by the teachers for it’s own political gain - leaving our children as collateral damage along the way.

Your government claims that LNG industry development will “build a prosperous economic future for British Columbia”. I disagree. What will build a prosperous economic future for British Columbia is adequate funding for the education of our future generation. Provide us with education for all children, instead of having so many kids in a class that the teacher can’t properly assess and supervise everyone. Provide specialist teachers and education assistants for kids with special needs, so that they can learn and progress with their peers, rather than disengaging and becoming lost. Provide School Districts with budget increases to cover utility rate increases, so that our children won’t suffer because the District has to pay BC Hydro and Fortis an extra $625,000. Currently, between not negotiating in good faith, and not providing the School Districts with an adequate annual budget, you are failing us; you are failing our children.

A few weeks ago when the Coquitlam Board of Education was having its last few public meetings before finalizing what cuts to make, my children became aware that their library was in jeopardy. My seven-year-old summed it up with “Mum, you said that you pay taxes so that the government gives us hospitals and schools to help us learn, but how can we learn without books and a LIBRARY? The government doesn’t care about us; the government is an asshole” And while I chastised him for using an inappropriate word, I cannot disagree with his opinion or fail to marvel at how astutely a child can assess a complicated situation and distill it down to its core.

Kristina Lee, Coquitlam
Post Script:
I am not a teacher. I am not married to a teacher. My parents were not teachers. I have no direct financial interest in this dispute other than being a very, very annoyed parent.

Sources
Vancouver Sun
The Province
www.dieticians.ca
vreaa.wordpress.com
newsroomgov.bc.ca
business.financialpost.com
www.rbc.com
British Columbia’s Liquified Natural Gas Strategy One year update , gov.ca.ca
cbc.ca
sd43.bc.ca/budget

#BCED cuts are not the only option - local teacher blog post

#BCED Cuts Are Not the Only Option: It Is Time for Trustees and Parents To Stand Together

This post by a local teacher is fabulous! I want to copy the whole thing, but instead, here are some highlights... I HIGHLY recommend you read the entire post here!

School boards across BC are releasing their proposed budgets this month, and overwhelmingly, school communities are grappling with shortfalls in the millions of dollars. Trustees are struggling with the prospect of gutting essential programs and services, and parents, students, and teachers are rallying to advocate for programs that have made a difference in their lives.

The cuts being proposed are drastic. In the words of one of my local trustees, “There is no more fat to cut, it is just bone now”. The Vancouver School board is considering eliminating their entire elementary band and strings program.

Over the coming month, parents, students, and teachers will write letters and attend local school board meetings to fight for the programs and services they care about. This is an important thing to do, and people need to make their voice heard to try to save what is important to them, however, we can’t stop at trying to save our program of choice for just one more year. We need to band together and go after the root of why our programs are at risk.

In all the conflict to come over what may be cut or what may be saved, there is one thing that trustees, teachers, and parents agree on with startling clarity; these proposed cuts are here because of the actions and policies of the provincial government.

The operating budget for #BCED has remained frozen for the third straight year as school districts grapple with price increases for basic costs such as hydro/power and MSP. Add the fact that inflation continues at 2% a year and you have significant and consistent cuts to school districts all over the province. As if that wasn’t enough, this year the provincial government has chosen to remove up to 50% of funding for future capital projects such as building repairs and seismic upgrades. What that actually means is that the province’s decision to cut the education budget in the province is literally putting the lives of students at risk by not funding earthquake repairs in an active earthquake zone. This is in addition to the lives put at risk through counseling and at risk youth programs cut through underfunding.

School boards have recognized the root of this problem for years. Last year the BC School Trustees Association voted unanimously to ask the provincial government to reopen the issue of school funding.

Many trustees are angry with the province for putting them in a position where they feel they are forced to be the instrument of gutting the essential and lifesaving services that students need so badly.

Boards feel bound to balanced budget legislation in the School Act, which states that any board that does not submit a balanced budget can be dismissed and replaced with a government appointed administrator.

The law itself is ludicrous; the fact that representatives elected by the people can be replaced with an unelected administrator goes against the very idea of our democracy.

Two years ago school board trustees in Cowichan recognized this and did what they felt was the moral thing to do. Instead of balancing their budget by doing things that would harm the students in their care, they submitted a needs budget to the provincial government, asking for what they needed to run their schools properly. Because Cowichan stood alone, the government was able to dismiss the board and hired an appointed administrator to slash the district’s budget.

School board trustees – you don’t need to be the instrument of harmful government cuts to what you care about so dearly. You can choose to be the leaders we need by joining together, submitting needs budgets to the province, and showing them with real action that they need to put money back to into public education. Now is the moment to do this. The cuts this year are so extreme that parents, students, and teachers are hungry for real solutions, and many of them want you to show the kind of moral courage that this action entails. If you banded together and the parents supported you, the government wouldn’t be able to dismiss you all, and you could make a real difference in the lives of the students in your care.

Parents, students and teachers – yes go to local school board meetings and fight for what you care about, but as you do, don’t just ask your school board to save your program for one more year. Ask your trustees to work together with their colleagues across the province to ensure that the programs and people you care about are here for years to come. They need to know that you support them in doing all that they can do to advocate for your kids and you need to advocate with them to by taking your message to the provincial government and demanding that they make students and schools a priority in this province again.

If we work together, we can change this for the better. It is time we started.

source

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: Support for Public Education, but higher taxes?

This post was interesting to me. I agree if government was more fiscally responsible there could be more done with less, however, to make any real changes, there needs to be more money.... higher taxes is the way to achieve that, but not all are willing to fork over more gmoney, and especially not to a government who mismanages it.

I wish they would explore the corporate taxes further before hiking taxes for the public. I am not opposed to a tax increase if it would help with public services, however, I feel the corporations are let off easy when it comes to taxes and I really think there is something to explore there that could improve public services such as education - for all.

British Columbians indicated strong support in a recent poll for increased spending on public education, but they were sharply divided when asked if they were willing to pay more taxes to accomplish that. In the poll, commissioned by the B.C. Teachers’ Federation, 43.6 per cent of respondents said they would accept a small tax hike to improve education and hire more teachers, but 41.8 per cent said they do not want to pay more. The remainder were uncertain. Leslie Turnbull, a partner with Viewpoints Research of Winnipeg, the firm that conducted the poll, said it’s not uncommon for Canadians to indicate a preference for more government spending but also an unwillingness to cover those costs through taxation. “Most people feel that if government streamlined its spending, better managed it and focused on the key things that are important … then the public could get the services it needs,” she said in an interview. “That’s probably not realistic.” Nevertheless, BCTF president Susan Lambert said she was heartened by the results because they contradict suggestions from the Fraser Institute, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) and the Liberal government that there’s no appetite for a tax lift. “What this is saying to us is that parents and the public are open to a conversation around tax increases, especially if it goes to priorities that they’ve identified … (such as) public education.”

Read More here

B.C. Students are waiting....

Teacher Resignation: I am not leaving my profession, in truth, it has left me

Increasingly teachers are speaking out against school reforms that they believe are demeaning their profession, and some are simply quitting because they have had enough.

One letter of resignation from a veteran teacher, Gerald J. Conti, a social studies teacher at Westhill High School in Syracuse, N.Y. was shared in a recent Washington Post article.


Read the entire letter here.

He talks about the changes over the years and how the teaching profession and the classroom have become devalued and pushed by testing to get funding.... here is an excerpt:

In their pursuit of Federal tax dollars, our legislators have failed us by selling children out to private industries such as Pearson Education. The New York State United Teachers union has let down its membership by failing to mount a much more effective and vigorous campaign against this same costly and dangerous debacle. Finally, it is with sad reluctance that I say our own administration has been both uncommunicative and unresponsive to the concerns and needs of our staff and students by establishing testing and evaluation systems that are Byzantine at best and at worst, draconian. This situation has been exacerbated by other actions of the administration, in either refusing to call open forum meetings to discuss these pressing issues, or by so constraining the time limits of such meetings that little more than a conveying of information could take place. This lack of leadership at every level has only served to produce confusion, a loss of confidence and a dramatic and rapid decaying of morale.

He closes his letter with this:

After writing all of this I realize that I am not leaving my profession, in truth, it has left me. It no longer exists. I feel as though I have played some game halfway through its fourth quarter, a timeout has been called, my teammates’ hands have all been tied, the goal posts moved, all previously scored points and honors expunged and all of the rules altered.
For the last decade or so, I have had two signs hanging above the blackboard at the front of my classroom, they read, “Words Matter” and “Ideas Matter”. While I still believe these simple statements to be true, I don’t feel that those currently driving public education have any inkling of what they mean.

[Source]

Board Budget Meeting Presentations

Last night I attended the local school board meeting to support teachers presenting to the board on budget recommendations. It is an annual thing, teacher groups present to the board to try to keep their programs alive... with cut-backs, it is really trying to not get cut...

It is so upsetting to witness the decline in services to our students as a result of continued underfunding from the B.C. Liberals... 

Teacher Librarians, Music teachers, Home Ec teachers, Teachers-Teaching-On-Call, Staff development, speech pathologists, student services and more presented to the board. I loved the prezi's anamoto's and various forms of presentations used.

Thank-you to all the teachers who after a long day in the classroom, made it out to the evening board meeting, which went very late, to speak so passionately about their programs and their students.

Finland's Education System

At a recent Professional Development Training session we were asked, what would our dream Pro D be... sky is the limit.... no barriers of time or money. The responses were interesting. My response was to spend time (a month, 6 months, a year?) in Finland or one of the Nordic countries. To observe and participate in their education system. I have heard amazing things and I would love to experience it myself.

Why?

26 Facts about Finland's Education System:

1. Finnish children don't start school until they are 7.
2. Compared with other systems, they rarely take exams or do homework until they are well into their teens.
3. The children are not measured at all for the first six years of their education.
4. There is only one mandatory standardized test in Finland, taken when children are 16.
5. All children, clever or not, are taught in the same classrooms.
6. Finland spends around 30 percent less per student than the United States.
7. 30 percent of children receive extra help during their first nine years of school.
8. 66 percent of students go to college.
9. The difference between weakest and strongest students is the smallest in the World.
10. Science classes are capped at 16 students so that they may perform practical experiments every class.
11. 93 percent of Finns graduate from high school.
12. 43 percent of Finnish high-school students go to vocational schools.
13. Elementary school students get 75 minutes of recess a day in Finnish versus an average of 27 minutes in the US.
14. Teachers only spend 4 hours a day in the classroom, and take 2 hours a week for "professional development".
15. Finland has the same amount of teachers as New York City, but far fewer students.
16. The school system is 100% state funded.
17. All teachers in Finland must have a masters degree, which is fully subsidized.
18. The national curriculum is only broad guidelines.
19. Teachers are selected from the top 10% of graduates.
20. In 2010, 6,600 applicants vied for 660 primary school training slots
21. The average starting salary for a Finnish teacher was $29,000 in 2008
22. However, high school teachers with 15 years of experience make 102 percent of what other college graduates make.
23. There is no merit pay for teachers
24. Teachers are effectively given the same status as doctors and lawyers
25. In an international standardized measurement in 2001, Finnish children came top or very close to the top for science, reading and mathematics.
26. And despite the differences between Finland and the US, it easily beats countries with a similar demographic

 Interesting isn't it? This list is from Business Insider but I found the commentary on this blog even more interesting:

Perhaps the greatest lesson to be learned by all nations is that individual achievement is important; but, creating a system that is truly equitable for all families in all regions regardless of socio-economic status raises EVERYONE'S academic achievement levels (and still allows for individual success as well).
 

I wonder what it would take to see that kind of system here in Canada?

Clark government cuts Science World program for kids

Christy Clark and the Liberals putting Families First... right?

Wrong!

Again!

Though this cut is to an important education program, so it makes sense they cut funding - that is what they do best!

Vancouver Sun writes:

VICTORIA - The B.C. government has cut funding to a Science World program that brought innovative education to hundreds of thousands of children across the province. In an interview Thursday, the chair of Science World's board of directors said his organization will no longer be able to run the Program for the Awareness and Learning of Science, which included free fieldtrips and touring educational science programs to communities around the province. "Why it's so important is we're of the view that graduates in science, technology, engineering and math are the natural resources of the future," said Andrew Harries, chair of Science World's board of directors, adding the BC PALS program helped inspire kids to follow careers in these areas. "Any government that doesn't recognize that is short changing its society." Harries said provincial funding of the program began in 2005, adding the province has contributed between $1 million and $2 million each year since. He said the program allowed Science World to extend its reach into communities across the province, including many First Nations communities. "Science World will roll up in a truck and it will take its hands on, highly visual and entertaining form of science learning to kids that just don't get to experience that," he said. "There are very few communities, in fact very few schools in the regions, that the PALS program hasn't reached in the past few years." Education Minister George Abbott has not yet commented on the issue. Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/Clark+government+cuts+Science+World+program+kids/6856207/story.html#ixzz1z8K2rLKa