To help cover added day-care costs, Education Minister Peter Fassbender has pledged to pay $40 a day to parents of students under age 13 if the teachers’ strike continues into the upcoming school year.
British Columbia Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) president Jim Iker says taking this tactic is a “blatant and divisive attempt to prolong disruption in B.C. schools.”
The provincial government should redirect its energies into reaching an agreement with B.C. teachers through mediation this summer, he explains.
Cariboo-Chilcotin Teachers’ Association (CCTA) president Murray Helmer says Fassbender’s move could extend the dispute because now “everyone will have to compromise even more” with a smaller pot of money to work with.
Helmer says he thinks the pressure from parents to resolve the impasse in education bargaining is on both sides – they just want to see their children back in school.
It is a removal of preordained funding out of education where it is “obviously needed” and that could “go a long way” to resolving the contract dispute, Helmer adds.
“It’s money that was budgeted for education but it’s not going to be spent there now; it’s going to be spent on day care.”
That day care will not be needed if successful bargaining could progress, and that money could instead be used to settle the dispute, he explains.
“In a class of 30 students, at $40 a student that is $1,200 a day. The amount of service improvement we’re looking for doesn’t cost anywhere near that; they could take care of the needs of those students in the classroom quite handily.”
NDP education critic Rob Fleming says his party is calling on the B.C. Liberal government to commit to putting the $178 million saved during the school shut down back into the public education system.
“Those are parents’ tax dollars and should go back into helping children in classrooms … 100 per cent of this money should be going back into public education.”
While the bargaining representative for the province and the BCTF went back to the table on Aug. 8, the CCTA president is uncertain if he will receive much indication on how that went until a general union assembly scheduled to happen just over a week before school is due to resume.
Meanwhile, he notes Fassbender’s manoeuvre to use teacher’s lost wages in an attempt to appease parents is “not a helpful move” and signals a negative view of any chance for resolution.
Says Helmer: “It appears to be more of a slap in the face than it does as some actual positive move from the government. The focus has shifted away from the bargaining table.”
He adds government appears to be indicating it sees no end to the dispute by fall, so it is handing out help to parents, rather than moving forward toward a solution.
“I’m saying, let’s put it all out there and make sure that school is up and running on Sept. 2.”
