Re: Editorial “No real winners,” March 22
I agree with many of the opinions which were expressed in the piece which was printed last Thursday – there are currently many speedbumps in the education system and differences of opinion which are interfering with what could help B.C. to be “the best place on earth” for learning.
As was suggested in your article, it is necessary to look at the situation from both sides, and to ask a series of good questions.
A few of the questions which I would encourage families to consider include:
In terms of current education funding, what is the ratio of funding for private versus public schools, and how much has this division changed in the past 12 years?
On a similar note, should we wonder what message is being conveyed about B.C. education, when our own premier (and former minister of education) has her son enrolled in a private school?
Of course this is a family’s choice, but it leads one to wonder what families want for their child’s education, and what public schools are no longer able to offer all students within B.C.
With a repeated message about $176 million additional dollars being directed towards education, perhaps we should wonder about the number of years that this is being spread across, and how specifically it will be used to alleviate earlier cutbacks in funding to districts.
If more teaching assistants will be hired within the province, will they improve support directly for your son/daughter, or would smaller classes with fewer distractions be better?
And finally there’s a question that I have been wondering quite a bit about lately: if the Liberals truly respect teachers and the teaching profession, what are they currently doing to show this?
Perhaps there is more that they could do – or stop doing.
S. Wohlgemuth
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