News Leader News
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
- April 18, 2006
To the Editor;
Last week former judge Ted Hughes issued a searing indictment of the Ministry of Children and Family Development and its dysfunctional child protection system, that had striking, if not scary, parallels with what is currently happening to our K-12 public school system in this province.
Exaggeration you say. Well think again.
Judge Hughes found that the child protection system in BC had been undermined by massive government cutbacks, a revolving door in senior leadership, major shifts in practices and poorly managed efforts to decentralize responsibilities to a local level.
While there are, mercifully, no tragic outcomes in education as happened in the child protection system, there are nevertheless visible casualties in public education with the denial of programs, services and support to thousands of kids across this province, leading, in large measure, to one of the bitterest teachers' strikes that BC has ever seen.
Six months later this is still resonating, as Victoria's much - vaunted Round Table seems unable to reach a consensus on the controversial issue of class size and composition.
The instability that Hughes wrote about, in the child protection system, was equally present in our education system, as, since 2002 Victoria has dramatically cut education funding by cynically downloading financial responsibilities for a teachers' salary increase on to school boards. Other cuts, some carefully disguised, direct and indirect, followed. These
cutbacks continue right up to the present day, despite repeated and unconvincing denials by successive ministers of education. Indeed spin doctoring has by now become a way of life, as public relations initiatives often replace pragmatic policies. A local political observer put it well, when he wrote recently: "Although we elect governments to make decisions of our behalf, we depend on our leaders to conduct informed debates that will clarify issues for us. These days, however, we live in a world of perpetual political spin." Nowhere is this more evident than in the passing last year of the Liberals' opportunistic and light-weight Safe Schools Act.
Some may think that our education's difficulties are relatively minor, when compared with the chaos in the ministry of children and families-- in a sense yes, but on the other hand, there have been far too many destabilizing factors at play in our K -12 system that the striking parallels with the Hughes document should not go unnoticed and unexamined.
When the cumulative impact of all that has happened in education over the past five years are itemized and weighed, the same four major concerns that Hughes noted emerge clearly: the massive cutbacks (over 2,500 teachers laid off); the revolving door of ministers of education (three in five years); major shifts in policies (the over-the-top emphasis on testing, examinations and accountability, and a complete reorganization of the ministry around this policy shift); poorly managed efforts at decentralization (one has just to look at the current fiasco of doubt and uncertainty leading up to the yet-to-be-tabled, major, repurposing bill).
Add to this, the repeated flip flops on policies and on education funding; the numerous court challenges to ministry practices by parents, (denial of help for special needs student - the ministry lost); by teachers, (the right to speak to parents on program shortfalls at parent teacher conferences - the ministry lost); by education groups, (the undemocratic composition of School Planning Councils - currently before the courts); an involuntary four-day week for students due to underfunding; the blatant and unsuccessful attempt by ministry officials to undermine the credibility of Vancouver's non-partisan Save Our Schools advocacy group in 2003; the closure of over 100 schools; the systematic alienation and bypassing of the province's teachers in key policy and program decisions; the growing number of school districts with business companies in financial difficulties; and when adding all of this together, one wonders how much stress and turmoil our system can take before it sinks into deeper and more troubled waters.
Amazingly, the system seems to carry on despite the welter of tribulations that it encounters, but make no mistake about it, we are now stretching our luck as storms of increasing cynicism, alienation, and lack of trust continue to gather on the horizon.
Part of this instability was due to the non-stop introduction of new initiatives while previous initiatives had scarcely time to take hold. Many in the field felt that we were undergoing change for the sake of change, as was the case of Christy Clark's hastily embarrassing and off-the-cuff, physical education program. This had to be withdrawn and reissued a year later. Or take the recent, abrupt, change for granting special education kids school leaving certificates, which drew close to 3,000 protest signatures, forcing the ministry to amend its stance. One observer counted over 24 separate initiatives altogether over a four year period.
While we are nowhere near the almost total collapse that led to the current chaos in the ministry of children and family development, we are nevertheless at the point in education where, with so much wear and tear on our system, that a non-partisan and totally independent review of K-12 education is called for.
It has been two decades since the last royal commission was set up in this province and since that time almost every other province in Canada has had at least one independent external review of its public school system. For example, Alberta's unprecedented teachers' strike in 2002 led to the setting up of that province's Commission on Learning, producing the landmark, 2003, report entitled: Every child learns. Every Child succeeds.
Over the past five years we have had far too much confrontation, far too much overloading of the curriculum, far too much spin-doctoring of policy changes, far too much lack of consensus, and far too much upheaval and uncertainty for our public schools to move co-operatively forward into the future.
It's time to stop and reflect.
An independent and non partisan Commission on Teaching and Learning for the K-12 school system in British Columbia is urgently needed.
- Noel Herron, False Creek
To The Editor;
My mother - Kim Frankland -lived in the corner unit above the pub in the former Princeton Hotel. She awoke to fire alarms and smoke throughout the building in the early morning of Saturday, April 8th.
Kim had a stroke and was left disabled 10 years ago. She had to get herself out of the building without shoes or anything else-including her elderly, also disabled dog Bear.
As Kim is disabled she is unable to work and has very limited income. The fire left her with nothing.
Many friends and family members have come forward to help Kim start rebuilding her life.
We have set up an account if there are others that would like to help us help Kim start over again.
The account is at Valley First Credit Union in Princeton - Branch 4 - Account 3-183269. Any donations are very much appreciated.
Thank you in advance for your help.
Sincerely,
Nichole Boultbee (Kim's oldest daughter).
