Over the years, I would often invite people from outside the public-education system to speak to classes — business people, government officials, police members and professionals of various callings.
The after-class response from these speakers was always the same: “That was not easy, and you say teachers do this for six hours a day, for 190 days or so each year? How do they survive?”
It is a common trope among educators that when the “man-in-the-street” is asked about the state of public education, the response is often: “Not good and getting worse, mind you my child’s school is pretty good and his/her teacher is excellent.”
Yet somehow, B.C.’s teachers, especially at the time of contract negotiations, remain an easy target for cheap shots from people such as an ex-premier who said of teachers “they’re only in it for the money.”
The current contract expires Sunday.
For the vast majority of B.C.’s 43,000 public school teachers, teaching is a calling, it is a vocation and they leave it to someone else — in this case, the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation and government — to wrangle about contract details and political aftermaths.
Education is not cheap. Overall, the B.C. education budget increases to $5.9 billion for the year.
That’s up from $5.6 billion last year and includes $5.3 billion for public schools and $383 million for private or independent schools.
There is an additional $2 billion in capital funding for new schools and renovation of existing schools in the next three years. Most of this is allocated to projects already announced.
Apart from the other budget gobbler, health care, education takes a significant bite out of the public purse.
The major part of education operating costs is committed to teaching and non-teaching (secretarial, maintenance, transportation) compensation packages and costs related to working conditions.
Even so, B.C. teachers’ compensation packages place them at the low end of the scale compared with other provinces.
Reports indicate that B.C. teachers are asking for a three per cent wage increase and cost-of-living increase that adds up to 13.7 per cent over four years, plus a cost of living increase.
On average, our province is in the middle compared with the rest of Canada, with average teacher salaries averaging at about $49,000, while new teachers in Alberta make the most, starting at $58,500.
That’s at the low end of compensation for other people with a three-or-four-year university degree, plus a year’s additional professional education, given that the Canadian initial compensation average for a bachelor’s degree is about $57,000.
Despite this, B.C. students have earned some of the best outcomes against their peers in the 2015 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA).
Conducted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, PISA assesses 15-year-old students from 72 countries and all 10 Canadian provinces.
B.C.’s Grade 10 students earned the top-spot for reading, second in science and sixth in math compared with other provinces — each an improvement over the last time testing results were released.
It would seem specious bordering on irrational to suggest that if B.C. teachers, despite being paid less than their counterparts in other provinces, are doing such a good job, why pay more?
Yet I’ve seen that argument made more than once.
Nonetheless, it’s back to the bargaining table and once again it would seem wise, based on the “education wars” of past years, to establish firm, mutually signed off ground rules — the “no matter” what rules.
No matter what, kids will not be affected, no lockouts, strikes, schools closed, family life thrown into chaos.
No matter what, those directly involved, sitting across he table from each other, will stay there, doors closed, until an agreement is reached, no walking away, negotiating in the media or flouncing off in a huff. There would be breaks allowed for nourishment and natural needs, but not necessarily sleep.
No matter what, the class size and composition numbers established in 2017 by the Supreme Court of Canada after the last contract-busting attempt by government, remain sacrosanct. The Supreme Court has other things to which it must attend in the public interest.
No matter, what both sides commit to considering the implications for public confidence outlined in of James Hoggan’s little book, I’m Right and You’re an Idiot: The Toxic State of Public Discourse and How to Clean it Up.
Teacher contract negotiations should be conducted by both sides, government and the teachers’ union, in a way that does not diminish public confidence in the conduct of public education and send parents dashing off to independent schools as happened last time.
Game on.
Geoff Johnson is a former superintendent of schools, who, during his career in public education, has worked both sides of the negotiations table.
