I just emailed the text below to the Premier, Minister of Education, the head of the BCTF and the BCSPEA.
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There’s a straightforward way to solve the dispute between teachers and government. This solution has the benefit of actually helping children, meeting basic goals of both the government and the union.
I suspect that the government is being so weird about pay because paying the teachers more does not guarantee better results in the classroom. If a teacher receives an x% raise, it does not improve the classroom outcomes (e.g. numeracy and literacy) without other support.
No one who’s paid attention to an elementary school’s student population has missed the fact that there’s a problem with special needs and behaviour issues. Solving the special needs problem and general behaviour issues would benefit all students. When I asked my own child why she was having trouble with percentages, she blamed herself for not asking enough questions and then cited classroom distractions. Logically, fewer distractions lead to better learning with the same teachers.
Contract Solution
Enshrine funding to handle Special Needs (i.e. double the staff asap and then study how to assess true resource requirements needs based on case loads). Do not let the Boards of Education use the money for anything else.
Give the teachers a raise that’s a slight tick above what the best deal to other unions was. (No employer is going to bump one unionized group higher without serious justification.)
Goals Met
- Teachers’ work lives improve
- All kids’ learning improves
- Special Needs kids receive more help and are less disruptive
- The government looks like they care about all the kids and holds the raises to something defensible.
What are you waiting for?
