Teachers unions are known to be mighty warriors against reasonable efforts to remove incompetent teachers from classrooms.  This is an international phenomenon as these unions are well connected fraternally and they share agendas which favor union goals.

In British Columbia we have had a College of Teachers which, like other Professional Colleges, is supposed to help in quality assurance and discipline of members not meeting standards.  Our BCCT is considered a threat to the teachers’ union, the BC Teachers’ Federation.  BCTF members sit on the Council of the BCCT and are elected from their membership.  Other members of the Council are appointed and represent various other education partners in BC.

The last meeting of the Council, held Jan 27, 2010 was a classic example of a meeting successfully disrupted by a coordinated, textbook use of “democratic principles” to sabotage the meeting from dealing with a governance issue that was to deal with greater independence for the College – independence in the public interest, not serving special interests.

I have written before about the BCTF – one of the most, if not THE most militant on the planet – and their textbook methods to subvert and capture organizations for their purposes.  Below is my essay written a year ago about the BCTF and school boards:

(I expect to write more about recent filibusters.)

TEXTBOOK TECHNIQUES USED TO SUBVERT BCSTA (BC School Trustees Association)

The idea or notion of school trusteeship is simple and generally well-understood. In the one-room-schoolhouse days it was the parent board that hired and fired the teacher and made sure an expected curriculum was followed.  In later days the board was supposed to be elected citizens from the community to oversee this task. 

IT WAS NEVER MEANT TO BE THAT SCHOOL BOARDS WERE TO BE RUN BY TEACHERS THEMSELVES!

In British Columbia school trusteeship is shaping up to be a colossal farce.

1.  Many teachers get elected to school boards. Some are from neighboring school districts.

2.  Many of these candidates do not declare that they have teaching backgrounds in their election campaigns.

3.  A number of current trustees have actually been executive members or staffs members of the BC Teachers Federation.

4.  There are no conflict of interest restrictions in the statutes that prevent this.  It could be entirely possible for 100% of trustees of the public education system in BC to be teachers or ex-teachers or parachuted BCTF ex staff members.

5.  That the speed with which the parallel, or mini BCSTA within the larger major BCSTA — called TAG, Trustee Action Group – has been formed points to certain questionable strategies being used:

a)  An ex-BCTF staff member is providing the initiative and organizational tools and perhaps funding or wherewithal (in-kind assistance).

b)  The campaign by teacher unions in the earlier school board elections in November to obtain supportive candidates through pledge sign-ups has laid the groundwork for current organizational momentum.

c) Worker control of the workplace is a common belief held by militant teacher unionists.  100% control of school boards would actually be desirable.

6.  Teacher unionism itself is now to become a profession in BC with the new Masters of Education program being assembled at the Simon Fraser University to start this fall of 2009.  Two members of the BCTF staff have already been designated as professors who will be contributing to the lesson plans and textbooks in this field.

7.  In these constraining economic times it is very likely that teacher layoffs would be a reality in “normal” school boards.  However, teacher-dominated or teacher-sympathetic boards will continue to use any cost-cutting measures aside from layoffs – at the same time as they will continue to agitate about government underfunding even amidst declining enrollments. 

8.  The coalescing of left-wing and “progressive” groups for fast voter activation and opposition to other feared moves is another aim of TAG besides thwarting layoffs. Such coalitions are springing up all over BC on top of other BCTF-led groups already in existence. Such issues as the following are bound to arise and probably be subject to legislation in the future:  more school choice through charters; tuition tax credits for education provision outside public schools; private scholarships; conflict of interest legislation for school boards; professional designation opportunities for teachers; stricter oversight over university departments of education; school-based management;, teacher incompetence rules.

9.  It is hilarious to see a motion to the BCSTA convention regarding the need to stimulate the economy through school construction and repairs and renovations to schools.  This because of the “concerns” for the “present economic crisis.”! (Endorsed by TAG: how noble!)

10.  It is NOT funny that teacher-led motions will urge the masking of FSA data which is a blatantly self-interested move to prevent transparency about school performance in this province.

11.  TAG has been offered help to critique school board budgets and Ministry of Education funding allocations from the Columbia Institute, a rather “progressive” left think tank.  They offer to add interested trustees to a listserve on these issues. Fraternal greetings were received at one of the organizing meetings.

12.  Actions that in other jurisdictions are called “insubordination” by teachers unions are called “doing their duty to inform”.  In Vancouver parents are receiving union literature through their children as couriers “informing” (more like propagandizing) them about union-led meetings and concerns about class size.

What’s to be done?

A.  Obviously censure is called for.  This is not to censor and stop from speaking.  It is to censure: to criticize; reprimand for inappropriate behavior; to call to attention devious methods used; to rebuke; to slap the wrists of; to be shown displeasure from one’s peers.  Surely the leader of the pack, Mr. Lombardi, and his fellow engineers need to face those who feel offended and compromised personally regarding their own role as trustees and those who feel the very purpose and institution of the BCSTA is being sabotaged and subverted.  The methods used throughout these three months should be up for examination.

B.  The BCSTA should not be used as a cover for covert TAG organizational efforts.  Unless formally endorsed by the BCSTA, such activity provides expenses paid opportunities for TAG to organize and at the same time to continue undermining normal BCSTA activities and should not be sanctioned.

C.  Individual trustees and citizens should visit their MLA’s and apprise them of these extra parliamentary activities which in effect introduce elements of defiant parallel governments and serve to undermine the very structures and functions of democracy. Democracy is a fragile institution and well-meaning citizens should stand up to any totalitarian takeover attempts of a political framework where respect and self-criticism are important.  Democratic good-will and openness to divergent views should not, however, allow institutions to surrender as willing victims to heavy-handed subversion. 

D.  There should be many lessons from these recent events for us to be able to examine the viability and validity of our democratic institutions.  And let’s hope that those who care about the young – in our homes, schools, and communities – will be all the more resolved to help them understand the freedoms democracies bring and what it means to stand on guard for democracy!

Schmaltzy! I don’t think so.  The dangers are real.
 

The annual teacher union protest/campaign/disruption – whatever – happens as regular as clockwork around Springtime in BC (Canada).  As one local teacher union newsletter puts it:

“As the weather slowly changes, and plants start poking their green leaves up above the dirt, it is time for us to also shake off winter…it’s campaign season again…”

For the last decade the “excuse” — one could say “manufactured excuse” — has been opposition to standardized testing called Foundation Skills Assessment.  Read below my essay published in a local education blog in Dec/09.

I expect to shortly amplify this essay by trying to select just 12 reasons our provincial teacher union, the BCTF (Teachers Federation), needs to produce an annual campaign.

Foreshadowing the Next BCTF School Wars Surge
 
(by Tunya Audain, 091202, comment on Report Card blog by Vancouver Sun education reporter, Janet
Steffenhagen, story: “Christy Clark and the FSA: No propaganda mule” 091201)
 
Since the 70’s you can count on at least one yearly public onslaught from the teacher unions.  Save our Schools,
Class Size, Needs Budgets, Education Audit, etc., etc. 
 
As a PITA (Provincial. Intermediate Teachers Assoc) http://www.pita.ca/newsletters/March09c.pdf
Spring newsletter puts it so quaintly, “As the weather slowly changes, and plants start poking their green leaves
up above the dirt, it is time for us to also shake off winter…it’s campaign season again…”. The newsletter
continues: “The executive has spent in excess of 8 million dollars in the last 5 years…what do you think?
 
-  What do you think about the BCTF campaigns?
-  Do you support their tone and think they are effective?
-  Should we spend more on campaigns?
-  Should we continue them?
-  Do you feel that they have their place?”

It doesn’t seem to matter what the campaign must be, as long as it’s provocative and inflammatory.  It doesn’t
matter if it’s NDP, Socreds or Liberals in government – campaigns rule!
 
For the last ten years the rallying cry has been Drop the FSA’s.
 
The Nov 26 Christy Clark interview with Susan Lambert, vice president BCTF is here:
http://www.christyclark.ca/ (the 1-2pm slot) It’s nothing new.  It’s the same arguments against the Foundation
Skills Tests we’ve heard for the last few years:  teachers wasting time teaching to the test, considerable harm
done by the Fraser Institute rankings, narrows the curriculum, etc., etc., etc. Parents should exercise their
parental choice and excuse their children from the tests…
 
But we know, for example, that students who are homeschooled or in independent schools are not spending
undue time on FSA preparation.  The sample questions are easy to rehearse, and the functions being tested are
simply THE THREE R’S that are the FOUNDATION students need at the Grade 4 and 7 levels.
 
If those pesky FSA’s were wiped off the face of the earth today, the BCTF campaigns would continue.  Those
100’s of BCTF staff members at $80,000 salaries have to be kept busy. The union locals across BC have to be
galvanized and kept primed – for the current campaign or anything else down the line.  It’s the readiness to
spring into action, the testing of new technologies for mobilization, stretching the loyalties of members, the
razzmatazz of campaigns that counts. 
 
With a decline in public confidence in public education and with more parents increasingly supplementing
schooling with tutoring (from 25% in 2005 to 33% in 2007) the system needs to whip up the profile of teachers
in the community.  However, the attempts to capture parents and trustees sometimes do more to alienate than
recruit them.
 

Janet’s story mentions that the lawsuit launched by the BCTF was against Google for hosting a blog which
ridiculed then President Sims.  Janet also reports that while the lawsuit (20 pg Statement of Claim) seems to
have disappeared Big Bird and the FSA’s have not.   

But the scary part of Christy Clark’s story of 2006 is her reporting – and don’t forget that she was also a
Minister of Education at one time –  on the BCTF penchant for trigger-happy litigation.  It is frequently
showing its thin skin and highlighting lawyers-as-decision-makers.

Coming back to the Christy Clark show I did look up the 2006 cartoon and issues of the day
http://www.christyclark.ca/2006/10/29/teachers-union-should-learn-how-to-get-along-with-its-
neighbours/#more-15
 
Christy says in her piece of 2006: “BCTF seems to have forgotten how to settle anything except through
litigation. And this case demonstrates that no disagreement is too small to find its way into its lawyers’
hands….(this) has had a terrible impact on schools. Parents looking for common-sense solutions to classroom
issues can’t get them when complaints routinely get sent to the courts or arbitration…fodder for lawyers.”
 
On an earlier (Report Card) story we discussed the high costs school boards squander on legal services on the
people’s dollar.  Well, the BCTF legal expenses are on the teachers’ dollar ($1500 a year in union fees?) and
indirectly off the people’s dollar as it’s the government (taxpayer) who foots the bill for public school teachers’
pay.  
 
As one poster commented:  Teachers in BC ARE involved with the 3R’s, — reading, writing, and writmetic!
 
 

It’s just a matter of degree.  Expect all schools and school systems to be vulnerable to corruption – anywhere from pilfering a pencil from a school to outright criminal embezzlement as we’ve seen in the Detroit Public School system. The education systems, being the biggest or second biggest spenders of public money, have few stringent accountability measures to counter what is a system replete with opportunities for wrong-doing.  All at the expense of childrens’ education, of course.  In Detroit the “culture of corruption” is so severe that only one in four students graduates.

As a year end (2009) report for British Columbia, Canada, I have just published the following:

CORRUPTION: BC’s Education Nightmare – I

For the New Year, the new decade (2010), I wish to see a rededication to the task at hand – proper education of the young.  All else is secondary or non-essential. And, I’d like to see a lot less corruption. The two go together.

Fortunately, tough economic times help in the task of eliminating waste and refocusing on the essentials. It’s like in the Depression – maximize the resources you have.

In New Zealand when the government saw that it had “created a massive, unresponsive educational system where parents had little or no influence”, which didn’t meet acceptable achievement levels, and which “consumed 70 cents of every education dollar, with only 30 cents spent in the classroom” they did something radical. They implemented a very simple organizational change to switch those figures around.  District school boards were replaced by parent boards at each school, very much as we have in our independent schools. Those who care the most were now in charge. Parent trusteeship is voluntary, no pay!  (PS:  The Ministry was reduced to half its former size. Money saved is ploughed back into the schools, special services, and indigenous education.)  See: http://4brevard.com/choice/new-zealand.htm

Does our government in BC have the guts to do something so simple? Something radical.  The present system is totally unacceptable and getting worse by the month. There never was a year like 2009, rudderless and full of holes.

Before I list some of the corruptions we’ve seen in the last year let’s stop a moment to review what corruption is. Very simply, it is anything that robs the intended recipients of goods and services and/or deviates from its intended mission.  This deviation might be as simple as pilfering a school pencil, which is not a criminal offense, to the criminal embezzlement of millions of dollars, as we’ve read about in the Detroit Public School system.

Basically, to corrupt is to spoil, alter, or debase something into less than what it is supposed to be. Passing the smell test is another way of putting it.  “Something’s rotten in the state of Denmark”, that is, the fish is rotting from the head down.

These are just some of the corruptions, debasements and questionable practices discussed on this blog this year:

1.  Cronyism, nepotism — which was outed in the debates concerning deployment of TOC’s (substitute teachers). A dedicated page on this blog now has over 1,000 comments.

2.  Double dipping — TOC’s who are retired but still working on call, superintendents retired and on pension and working under contract.

3.  Conflict of interest – trustees who are teachers or ex-teacher union officials, have family on staff, in the role for 30 years, who have signed teacher union pledges to support teacher causes, etc.…

4.  Using school property for private commercial purposes – producing materials for sale, organizing businesses, charging high telephone calls to foreign countries for business….

5.  Conventions, junkets, retreats in distant locations and in expensive settings.

6.  Overspending by a school board because of poor accounting practices and poor reporting…

… more later …

Though I am shocked by the scale of the corruption in BC education, the long duration of some of the bad practices, and the depth, I an equally concerned about the lack of transparency and lack of accountability that is revealed.  Both oversight and procedures are flawed.

In the general field of corruption studies, perception is considered as important as the reality.  I am surprised and disappointed that it seems as if people don’t care.  As if this is the norm. The system is there to be milked – the children be damned!

Lest we get too agitated, however, a 6 year study by UNESCO has just published its report in English called: "Corrupt Schools, Corrupt Universities: What Can Be Done?”  The blurbs about the study say things like: “Corruption in education is rampant globally”, and “Corruption is endemic in many education systems around the world, undermining them and costing governments billions of dollars”.

In discussions about this report, in addition to the wrong-doing and harm done, is the painful acknowledgement of the effect on young people.

“Lack of integrity and unethical behaviour within the education sector is inconsistent with one of the main purposes of education: that is, to produce ‘good citizens’, respectful of the law, of human rights and fairness.” 

(by Tunya Audain, 100103, comment to blog Report Card by Janet Steffenhagen, Vancouver Sun Education Reporter, on her story: “Happy New Year – make a wish”, 091231 communities.canada.com/vancouversun/blogs/reportcard/archive/2009/12/31/happy-new-year-make-a-wish.aspx)