Dear editor,Re: Tom Fletcher’s column (Record, March 7).I find your article on the teachers’ strike misrepresents the facts of the ongoing negotiation.1) I will agree with you the letters from the first graders lack forethought.2) Students held a protest on their own. It was not organized by teachers. You may want to stop and ask them if they like being educated in overcrowded classrooms.3) And, yes, underfunding is a major issue.4) Yes, standardized testing can hurt self-esteem.5) Yes, class size is a big issue in quality education. I Googled “Does class size matter?” and found thousands of articles that say both yes and no.Do this for me, Tom. Visit my shop class some day, first come to the class with 20 kids and power tools, and then come into that same class with 31 kids. After spending a couple hours in these situations if you still want to say class size doesn’t matter, I won’t argue with you.6) It was a 15-per-cent raise, not 16 per cent, and, yes. we didn’t really expect it but how about just staying up with inflation so I can pay my seven per cent higher power bill.7) Sparsely attended rally? You were kidding, right?8) And by the way, it is about classroom conditions. We had reasonable conditions in the ’90s. We negotiated those limits. Remember the Supreme Court ruled that these conditions were illegally striped from our contact.9) If you would like to sit in one of my consultations (Bill 33) sometime, it will go like this: Jamie, your class is oversized and has too many IEPs, do you agree that this is conducive to good education? Jamie replies, “No, I do not.” Sorry Jamie, there is really nothing we can do. Thanks for coming in.10) In my many Bill 33 meetings only once did they remove a couple of kids. You will find that 75 per cent of my classes are oversized or over special needs. And this does not take into account that shop class used to have a maximum of 24 and now….11) As a parent do you want your child in a math class with 33 other kids and six or seven IEPs or would you prefer 25 or so kids all about at the same level as your child?12) You seem to be for private schools. What is their biggest draw?Smaller classes, similar types of students in that class? We all want that but it cost money, more that the government is willing to spend. I could go on but I am not sure you and I would agree on much. As a reporter it may be good to visit a few classrooms in session before writing another article.  Jamie Leslie,Comox Valley

Comox Valley Record