Traffic problems?! In outlining the challenges facing school districts, one must admire Ms. Tees' remarkable dexterity in tiptoeing around the elephant on the table. The growing chasm between costs and provincial funding has closed 130 BC schools and devastated the specialized school and district resources that are so critical to meeting our children's diverse educational needs. Our most vulnerable children are being abandonned, basics like libraries are now a luxury and the very survival of some small rural communities is at stake. From the standpoint of a parent/PAC member who's totally burnt out from trying to help our school "hold it together" under a fresh onslaught of cuts year after year, Tees and the BCSTA sound as oblivious to what's actually happening in our schools as Minister Christensen's PR staff.

Gordon Campbell was having communication problems. Well he should hire Ms. Tees. She is incredible blind and a yes man. (Woman like Ms. Tees, are not really woman. Their heart are broken and they are brainwashed. I guess she needs the money and the lamelight. Otherwise why would she put up with a system that is broken and rotten to the core and keep on been destroyed by Gordon in order to justify seling it down the road? Remember GATS are coming, slowly. Just like Tony Blair said: "Educational institutions will be the next frontier." Let's destroy the public education system and let the Edson Schools in throught the back door...YYYYEEEEEEHHHH! Ms. Tees will find a high paying job in one of the transnational corporations buying our educational institutions...how wonderful...

It seems that part of the parental complaint is the lack of basic and core resources: textbooks, supplies, teachers. The trustee on the other hand mentions special needs, linguistic problems, counselling. Are we crowding out basic education by requiring schools and teachers to do too many things? Is that why children don't learn to read and people are abandonning the public system? All of my family, friends, and acquaintances are big boosters of an all-inclusive public school system. Yet....without exception, all have abandonned the public school system. Not because it doesn't provide the trimmings, but because it can't provide the basics. My last name has four letters and only one possible phonetic pronunciation. Yet I've noticed that, without fail, people under age 40 who are products of the public system are unable to pronounce it at all, and often throw out wild and extraordinary guesses. This is a daily occurrance. But people over 40 pronounce it correctly every time with ease. Maybe the big problem with our schools is not that they don't provide counselling, but that they don't teach phonics.

Are we crowding out basic education by requiring schools and teachers to do too many things, asks "Union Guy", implying that special ed, linguistic (ESL?)and counselling programs aren't integral to basic education, like phonics, just unaffordable frills that leading schools astray. Our Canadian Charter gives ALL children an equal right to access a public education. Before the cuts, our public schools were equipped to address barriers to access like ESL and special needs in order to teach the basics to ALL students. But 10 years of program cuts, like cuts to teachers and supplies, are eroding this most fundamental right. And bizzarely, it's becoming increasingly popular to blame our neediest kids for the growing mess. (Do we blame chronically ill people for the mess of public health because they need more care than those with tougher constitutions?) No, we need to look in the mirror and admit that we've no one to blame but ourselves: in 2001 most BC voters chose tax cuts that made it impossible for provincial funding to keep pace with education costs. On the bright side, we do get to reconsider those priorities next year.

Why the different perspective from the trustees and the teachers? Maybe it is because the trustees are politicians who must look at the "big picture" as well as the size of their budget while the teachers face the daily reality of having to do with less and less to meet the needs of the students they see almost every day. Both want the very best for all the children in their district, but their jobs entail very different functions. Trustees mainly go to meetings and listen to different interest groups then decide how to divide up their smaller piece of provincial revenue; teachers mainly teach large groups of children. It would be ludicrous to think their answers to Killian's questions would be similar at all. It doesn't mean that they aren't on the same page. They both have the same general goals. Maybe that is why the trustees and teachers have both asked funding to be restored to 2001 levels; where it was before the BC Liberals came into power. Most teachers and trustees ARE on the same page, and it is stories like this that distort the reality.

I'll give the trustees of BC one benefit of the doubt here...but just one. Campbell's gang did tie their hands by freezing funding and dumping further costs to an already strapped budget, allowing Campbell to force the trustees to do the dirty work ( there was a leaked memo from Christy Clark in the year 2001 that actually spelled out their devious plan saying something to the effect of "we (Liberals) will come out looking bad if the public perceives we are cutting education funding so let's pretend to give choice and flexibility to the trustees, make them responsible for the cuts, and we come out looking clean." Surprise, surprise this memo got very little media coverage but it shows the blueprint for what we're seeing now. I do believe that far too many trustees are silent and all too eager to implement the cuts Campbell seeks. They will not submit a needs budget when the parents the teachers and the students call out for them to do so. Their reply is the same ol' sell-out. " If we submit a needs budget the government will fire us and replace us with a government-run over-seer". My response? Let them fire you! Then we can really hold THEM accountable! Let's see them struggle to balance the system on the meager funds they give you. Your voters will THANK YOU for standing up for kids and challenging these bullies! Stop being this government's BAGMAN! Fight back. We also need strong, progressive adults to run for trustee in the upcoming elections. Turf those who refuse to fight back and promote selling-off one of the world's best PUBLIC school systems. Our kids deserve it and BC teachers deserve it as morale is at an all-time low as they become the "kicking-can" for a system that is underfunded.

I'd like to know when Penny Tees was last in a classroom and talked to a teacher. In 19 years of teaching, I have never had a trustee visit my classroom and talk to me about my job. I am weary of trustees using their positions as political springboards. When Carole James became leader of the NDP, I lost hope for my profession in BC. She was an anti-teacher trustee in the Victoria school district who never took enough time to really find out what was going on in Victoria's schools. Moreover, she was ineffective in recognizing the corruption, misappropriation of funds, and plain poor decision making that prevailed during her watch as a trustee. I am appalled by what the Liberals are doing to this province and yet it appears that Carole James and the NDP is the only alternative. How wonderful. In my opinion, a trustee should forgo the right to enter municipal or provincial politics for at least five years following a period of service. Then maybe we'd have more dedicated and responsible people getting elected than Penny Tees and Carole James. As a teacher, I am exhausted by the scramble for resources, larger class sizes and the constant barrage of disrespect that rains down from elected people. I love teaching. It's an awesome job. But some support would be nice for a change. The kids deserve it.

The education system in BC is a cadillac as compared to other world jurisdictions. BCTF wants to control the entire system, lock stock and barrel, including higher than normal wages and benefits. We must see the reality that education is just costing too much and parents must take greater financial responsibility. Government can't do everything. Unionism in the classroom must be abolished!

I would be interested to see a comparison of public education systems from other industrialized, democratic countries from you sdgreen. What is the difference of per student funding in BC and in other provinces/states/countries. Do teachers in BC actually have higher than normal wages? What does a teacher in Washington State make? How about in Ontario? What does Mulgrave school, a private school in BC, pay their teachers? I can understand people being frustrated about paying for things they don't benefit from. You are obviously an advocate for a strict user-pay system. Do you think you should help pay for a child's cancer treatments? If their education funding is strictly the parents responsibility then surely their health is too.

You can find out so much information on the web. After only ten minutes of looking,I found out that in the 2000-2001 school year, (US Department of Eductation data) public schools nationwide spent $8,830 US per child. The Government of BC website has a figure of $6,500 CAN per child for the current school year. Converted to US dollars at today's exchange rate of 0.7694 (wow ... the dollar is going up!)that would be $5,001.15 US. Look at how much more the US spends the us. And you think we have a "Cadillac" system? Looks like we are more of a feul efficent import trying to squeeze that last drop of mileage out.

Alright, sdgreen, you're trolling... and all common sense tells me to run away...but I'll try to raise a few questions your way. The facts are: 1.BC teachers would have needed a 10% wage increase to meet just the cost of living during the last 10 years ( so, even with the Campbell imposed settlement of 7%, with only 2.5% paid by the gov't, and the rest out of district budget we're still 3% behind just the cost of living.) 2. There are far less stressful jobs that pay much more than the $60,000 a year I make with 16 years experience and a 5 year university degree...most teachers realize that we're not going to be millionaires, OK...but come on sdgreen, is cost of living too much to ask every 3 years? 3. If unionism has been so wrong and damaging, why have BC students placed in the top 5 nations in reading/writing/math and science in the OECD International Tests held each year for the last 10 years teachers have had the right to strike? Is it because teachers who feel empowered and inclusive in decision-making are happier and more dedicated? What's your explanation sdgreen? I'm interested in your opinion? What do you do for a living? Do you have to bring in your own equipment and materials paid out of pocket? BC teachers pay out the highest amount of out of pocket expenses ( $1,500 a year approx.) in all of Canada. We subsidize the system sdgreen. Are you OK with that? If relations between teachers and employers were fair and equitable, and not dysfunctional, and not tied to political goals, there would be no need for the BCTF. As the relations are not functional, I guess the BCTF will stay. I guess the BCTF will be made redundant when governments quit using the education system as a political football and teachers get the resources needed without begging. Every student needs a solid, equal opportunity to learn. All of Canada, including corporate Canada, benefits when we have an educated workforce. At the time when education is more necessary than ever, your answer is to privatize it and make it user-pay? By the way, when teachers promote good working conditions for ourselves when we bargain ( which is not really bargaining under Campbell's Banana Columbia) it also benefits the children we teach...how wrong is that?

The BCTF is NOT the problem, even though they are not that keen on alternative type schools. Nor is teacher unionism in general the problem. Teachers, and all workers for that matter, need unions to protect them, sdgreen, you should know that. Bureaucratization and centralization of education was not invented by the teachers, it came from the govt!

Every time someone tries to start a serious discussion about public education and the growing crisis facing our kids due to underfunding, some political smart-ass manages to turn it into a pro/anti union slugfest. It's a great way to duck the real issues and we fall for it every time.

I agree with the teachers union generally, except when they go on that they are fighting for kids as if what is good for the BCTF is always good for students. Teachers love teaching and want the best for their children, but the purpose of a union is to advance the goals of the membership! If it serves education fine...but stop acting like the BCTF can have it both ways!

Just a few comments and questions to parent2. As a BCTF member, I know we have bargained in the past for class-sizes no larger than 22 for K-3 and no more than 24 - 30 for senior secondary...now, you may perceive that teachers did this for ourselves, but you cannot deny the fact that the students also benefit from a lower class-size limit...all pedagogy states that lower class sizes are a major determinant to improved student achievement. I also remember that teachers took a 2% pay increase to ensure lower class-sizes rather than a larger pay increase in 1998, far below cost of living. If all the BCTF is about is the advancement of teachers, as you claim, why didn't we give up class-size and go for a larger salary? We also bargain for more specialist-teachers to help special needs students achieve more success. Is it wrong to advocate for more teachers to do this? Is it ever selfish to want MORE teachers, so as to free up additional one-on-one time for all students including yours? Employed teachers also pay taxes into our collective system and spend money in stores and shops that make our economy spin. 2,500 laid-off teachers, 113 BC schools closed, increased class-sizes certainly isn't what I call a step forward in the education of BC's students. This "New Era" is harming children, not the BCTF.

sdgreen and Parent2: You folks are so anti-union that you fail to see their benefits to society. Sure they wield a certain amount of power and have their faults, but they serve well to provide structure and a balance within the workplace. Having worked in several different union shops in industry and now as a BCTF member, I cannot say that I've always been tickled by how these unions function. But I will say that I am no more impressed by how the corporate world or our government function as employers. Throughout the years, I've observed that when people are abused by poor management, their union grows stronger. The BCTF probably has more supportive members at this time because of the disrespect accorded to the teaching profession by the BC government and the media. We are not all lazy union members folks! Sure, there are teachers who could do better, but that can be said about employees in any workplace. Sdgreen and Parent2, it would be great for you to shadow a teacher or two for a day to observe first hand how many schools are struggling to keep the "cadillac" running. Right now the "cadillac" has been run into the ground by the BC Liberals, and the NDP, over the last decade and an engine overhaul is long overdue. Too many blame the BCTF for the woes in education but conveniently neglect to mention those who are really responsible. Your vitriolic criticism isn't productive. Get to know the facts and then vote appropriately on May 17th.

The BCTF advocates for teachers and children. The trustees advocate for the dollar and political advancement. Teachers work 5 days a week for 200 days a year. Trustees meet maybe 5 evenings a month with Board Staff doing 99% of the work. Teachers spend their own resources for class. What trustee has ever spent a nickel for a class from their remuneration? Both are democraticly elected by a minority of their constituants. Which of the two really cares about educating children? I wonder what axe sdgreen is grinding? Maybe sdgreen could spend a week of honest work in a classroom, write a $1500 cheque for the teacher and then run for a trusteeship. How about sdgreen????

Teaching is a very conservative profession - being responsible for children in every way that teachers are induces lots of serious contemplation of the role they fill. Teaching is a thought provoking job, and one that makes even the most "radical" of teachers careful and judicious in behavior and ideas. Those who depict the BCTF and by implication those who elect them as foaming at the mouth commie sympathisizers are far out of touch with the average teacher and his or her work. Before we blame the woes of the education system on the educators who make it work and work darn hard at it, maybe we ought to get to know at least one of them real well.

It was interesting I said "I agree with the teachers union generally", then made a criticism, for that I am "so anti union". It is interesting that in this environment you can be 75% or 95% in favour of a position, ie. supporting the union. But if you criticize or question the 5-10%, you are automatically on the other side, and the wagons circle. So the demonizing begins. So if I said there was a problem in moving incompetent teachers out the door (it could be the fault of management not doing their jobs, or contracts that make firing impossible). I would be a Liberal Dupe, instead of someone putting up a concern that many pro teacher, anti Liberal parents have...

To the Union Guy. How do you pronounce the three letters after Union? Your comment about phonics shows you really do not understand the concept of phonetics nor how the English language really works. Phonics is only one minor tool in the kit of teaching reading and spelling. Try these five words - cough though through rough plough - then try these as well - sign, signature - malign, malignant - grade, gradual - mode, modular. By the way do you pronounce the three letter word on your post Jee or Ji because the three letter break all the rules of phonics. The only way a child can make sense of Guy is by reading it in context NOT phonics. Hav a gud dai.

Parent2, I don't carry any ill will that you have an opinion that you think incompetent teachers exist...teachers are people, and just like any other workplace, I'm sure some teachers are not as committed to their jobs as they should be. In your comment, it sounded like you were placing the blame on the BCTF in "protecting" incompetent teachers and this is where I would like to have a rebuttal. The principal is the person in charge of a teacher's evaluation. It is my observation that principals do not do evaluations as they have no time to do them. It is quite easy to put the blame on the BCTF, but reality is the BCTF would not condone an incompetent teacher, (they make all of us look bad) BUT, the BCTF would ensure that the evaluation was done properly and "above board" as principals have been known to play favourites in hiring. Your criticism is valid, but the process starts with management's failure to proceed with the proper evaluation to remove the incompetant teacher, not BCTF protectionism.

Mr. Burgess, when the English language wants to maintain a hard "G" preceding a long or short "e" or "i", it inserts a "u" in between. As in "guess", or as in "guiness", or as in "guinea pig" or "guide" or "guerilla" or "guile", or "guilty". And a monosyllable ending in "y" always takes a long "i" sound. As in by, my, dry, fry, cry etc. etc. Uhm, if you think "guy" should be pronounced "gee", that's extraordinary....and, all I can say is, my original point is well demonstrated. I myself can think of only one way to spell and pronounce "guy". Your education would have been better served by learning phonics than peace studies or television arts! Hee hee.

Mr. Union Guy now all you have to do is try teaching this to primary children. Lots of luck. By the way you seem to have missed a point as well - phonics is only one MINOR tool in the teaching of language.

PRW-I need some enlightening. I said "So if I said there was a problem in moving incompetent teachers out the door (it could be the fault of management not doing their jobs, or contracts that make firing impossible)....did I mention the BCTF? Did I imply it was the BCTF's fault? I mentioned faulty Management, and contracts (which both parties have to sign). It just illustrates my point that the substance of the issue gets lost because people are always trying for figure out "what side is she or he on", then craft a response based on the larger battle, not the pragmatic element.

Parent2: I was going off of your first post where you said, "the purpose of a union is to advance the goals of their membership" and then blended it into your second post where you mentioned "incompetent teachers" which you probably didn't intend, and I misconstrued. I do thank all parents and general public who support teachers in BC and realize the challenges...we all need to voice our concerns to the Liberals and make positive changes so our kids get the best they deserve. As long as teachers are muzzled and the BCTF vilified in the media and the dysfunctional way we bargain in the public sector I hope it all holds up!

I agree with the polarization stated in the article but didn't Campbell divide the province with old left versus right ball game and then proceed to strip the province of its wealth in infrastructure via programs and job cuts? In education, we have stepped back in time to the 1950s under Campbell's deleadership. The only special interest group we have to really worry about is the secret agenda of Campbell's Liberals. A quality education system is the best hope for a prosperous future and for our hopes for our children.

I am sure that if the government decided to save more money by burning the kindergarden and grade one students to heat the buildings, BCPSEA and the trustees would be rolling up their sleeves to help throw the little fellows into the furnaces. The system suffered ten years of NDP cuts while the NDP hid behind BCPSEA. Then the liberals prescribed a diet for an already anorexic patient. In both cases they have hidden behind BCPSEA and the "...Ve are just following orders." trustees. Both groups lack the ability to stand up and look past the 30 pieces of silver that they are paid while the next generation is warehoused in cold buildings with the biggest idiots of all - namely the teachers who keep trying to make it all work with bake sales.