If I’m a teacher basher, I don’t think I’m alone

Perceptions by Gerry Warner

So readers are calling me a teacher basher, eh. Well once again they’ve got it wrong. I’m not a teacher basher. I’m a BCTF basher and I make no apologies for that as I believe the teachers’ union -- the most intransigent in the province -- has done irreparable harm to education in this province and if it’s allowed to continue we might as well scrap public education in B.C. and see if the private sector can do  better.

I take no pleasure in writing this, but having been a teacher myself and put two kids through the system, it sickens me to see how low the teaching profession has fallen in this province and the negative impact it’s having on our kids.

Where do I begin? I don’t need to remind anyone about the past “educational” year in B.C., a lost year if there ever was one. The BCTF was supposedly “negotiating” a new contract with the government, but an entire year went by without a contract being signed until the government in the public interest – and especially the students’ interest – legislated a contract on the teachers as they’ve done in the past and we dodged the bullet for another year.

But a forced contract is not a solution. We’ll be going through the same chicken dance again this year with all the phony rhetoric, brinkmanship and teacher job action that made public education such a mess in the province last year. And if the NDP are elected government in May, they better not think they’re in for a free ride. The BCTF has engaged in heavy-handed job action against them in the past and I’m sure won’t hesitate to do it again. And who will be the big losers? I don’t need to tell you that, but it won’t be the teachers.

And let me say a few things about BCTF “job action.” As you will recall, this resulted in such things last year as teachers working from “bell-to-bell,” refusing to do so-called “administrative functions,” boycotting supervisory duties, refusing to participate in extra-curricular activities – and most incredibly – refusing to send out report cards.

For God’s sake what kind of an education system refuses to issue report cards? Surely report cards are the basic foundation stone on which the entire education system sits? But they weren’t issued until once again the government legislated the BCTF into issuing them, though truth to say, prior to the government’s move, many conscious teachers found ways to get around the report card ban to their immeasurable credit.

But this is no way to run the farm.

I thought the low point last year was when BCTF President Susan Lambert  referred  to the ban on extra-curricular activities as “struck work.” Now, I happen to know teachers themselves are bitterly divided over this issue, especially team coaches, music and drama teachers and the many teachers that help out with clubs, grad ceremonies and the like. But being the good docile, union members they are they keep their disagreements behind closed doors while students and parents are left in the dark.

I could go on, but suffice to say teachers in B.C. have deserted professionalism for unionism and it’s not working. This is not a knock on unions which have done so much to improve conditions for workers. But teachers aren’t “workers” per se. They are educators and the most important person in students’ lives next to their parents. That’s a critical difference. But B.C. teachers don’t seem to realize this anymore as they tread ever further down the road of trade unionism. But I can tell you who does realize it and they’re voting with their feet – parents.     

The 2012 – 2013 enrolment stats are just out, and according to the Fraser Institute, which monitors educational statistics very carefully, more than 11.5 per cent of the half-million K to 12 students enrolled in B.C. this year are attending independent schools and the percentage is rising every year.

According to the Fraser Report study, the rush to independent schools is so heavy consideration is being given in the Lower Mainland to reopening closed public schools and providing independent education there. The rise of independent schools may not be as dramatic in rural parts of the province as it is in the Lower Mainland but it’s happening and contributing to the decline in enrollment here.

If this isn’t a wakeup call to the BCTF, I don’t know what is. Enrollment in public schools has been declining for years and now there’s competition, including home schooling . Could it be that parents are also sick of the politicization of education  in B.C., job action by teachers, cyber-bullying that teachers can’t seem to control,  social justice courses that bear a strange resemblance to the BCTF’s political agenda, shortened school weeks that see students out on the streets every second Friday and a general lack of discipline and rigor in the educational system.

Otherwise, why are parents voting with their feet?  

Gerry Warner is a retired journalist, former teacher and a member of Cranbrook City Council. His opinions are his own.