To the Editor,
Re: Strike won’t delay exams, grad ceremonies, June 19.
I’m sure everyone has heard the old adage, often stated in reference to politicians: You can fool some of the people all of the time. You can fool all of the people some of the time.
For 12 years now, the Liberal government has told the voters and people of B.C. that the province just does not have the necessary funds available to provide quality public educational services that every child deserves and every parent wants.
Premier Christy Clark and her government have not only underfunded public education (yet raised funding significantly for private schools), but have also tried to discredit and disparage public schools and their teachers.
Clark has reiterated the same spiel about teachers being greedy at the expense of students. And yet, her own and many of her cohorts’ salaries, expenses and pension benefits have risen astronomically during that same period.
Clark has been saying that her ‘Families First’ agenda drives her mandate. And yet everything she and her party have done to date contradicts that.
Clark has been relentlessly acting on the first two parts of the old adage. Please, do not let her get away with the third part of that statement: You can fool all of the people all of the time.
We and our children, our future leaders of society, deserve better than that.
Pat RustandNanaimo teacher
To the Editor,
I am a mother, grandmother, and a nurse. I recently walked the picket lines with teachers in Nanaimo; I believe to understand the issues in any situation you need to talk with the front-line workers which I did, the teachers and an EA friend of mine.
People drove by with their middle fingers up at the teachers.
I noticed that every car with parents and children on board waved and honked.
It is well-documented that even in the poorest countries, an education is revered and gives hope for a future. B.C. has the highest percentage of child poverty in Canada along with the second lowest funding per child for education. Why is this allowed?
I saw teachers cry; they would rather be teaching than this job action.
Teachers didn’t cause this and they have children too; now they have no income. Maybe the armchair critics should question how the government doesn’t have to abide by a Supreme Court ruling. Put the blame where it belongs. It really does take a village to raise a child.
Therese DykstraNanaimo
