1. Trustee System Does NOT Serve Parents Jan 12, 2012 In the 80s I asked a trustee why parents were treated so poorly by school boards. He said, "The trustees are there to protect the schools AGAINST parents." I was disappointed but not surprised. In '74 I presented a 5 pg brief on "School District Organization and Administration" to a Legislative Select Standing Cmt. About parents I said they were seen by trustees and officials as "either aggressive or nuisances." The Exec. Dir, BCSTA took me out to lunch (twice) to assess what kind of threat I was. In '75 our non-PTA parent group received federal funding for a consumer service for parents about education. The BCSTA protested to the feds that THEY were the avenue for parents. A new trustee seminar in '86 caricatured an "irate" parent in a very insulting way. http://education-advisory.org/2008/09/new-trustees-seminar-1986-vancouver-bc-canada/ What New West parents are experiencing is nothing new. Parents have little respect in this system.
2. Trustees' Job To Defend The System, Not To Serve Parents! Jan 12 Issues arising from New West story 1. More than one student is affected, therefore why shouldn't parents take this forward as a "class action"? 2. They are told it's a one-on-one process only. Divide and conquer. 3. The process is rigid, and slants in favor of the teacher. Winning by exhaustion seems to be the game. See teacher, then Principal or VP, then superintendent, then a review committee, then the school board. The teacher will try to have a union rep there. 4. Why aren't parents told they can have a rep too? Thankfully 1 parent has experience; otherwise this may never have come to light! 5. ESL parents would be highly disadvantaged. 6. Parents are reluctant to speak to a teacher for fear of retribution on the child. 7. To be fair, why isn't there a parent rights document as obviously teacher rights are well-protected? http://genuine-education-reform-today.org/2010/04/06/parent-rights-and-their-childrens-education/
3. Parents Betrayed By The Public School System Jan 16 Unfortunately, most parent challenges of the public school system usually come off as "David and Goliath" scenarios. But, even if events escalate to biblical proportions, it is rare, very rare, for the parent cause to win. Unlike the Bible story, parents and their causes are decimated. The public school movement is well-organized, well-funded, and committed to excluding interlopers to their neat arrangements. This is long-standing in BC (I've seen 40 yrs) and world-wide. "Parents as the Natural Enemy of the School System" was an article published in an education journal in1977 in the US. As a result of the UK government opening up the system to more choices, head teachers (principals) are taking new training courses entitled: "Parents – Partners or Enemies?" Clearly, the system is well-shielded from parents and well-trained to deal with them. A daunting time awaits New West parents! Most parents slink away. Don't!
4. Who Is Responsible For Education Of The Young? Jan 16 Clearly, parents are very disadvantaged, individually, or as groups, when taking an issue or complaint forward in the public school system. What is abundantly known, however, is that it is the parents who are ultimately responsible for children's education. The system is accountable TO parents, not vice versa! Why did school boards send out blank report cards to parents in this teacher strike? BECAUSE, it's illegal to withhold reports from parents (School Act). Parents are the ultimate decision-makers! Farcical as the blank reports issue is, it proves the law is on the side of parents! Today's Province columnist, Jon Ferry applauds these parents: "I raise my hat to the more than 15 parents who reportedly showed up at a New Westminster School Board meeting last week to voice their concerns about a secondary school teacher who, they claim, has been routinely dishing out failing grades. We clearly need more teacher accountability."
5. Remedies (New Westminster) Jan 16 The reason why the system is NOT parent-friendly and grievance procedures for parents are so onerous is that parental rights are given away at the collective bargaining table. No one speaks for parents' rights when public teachers obtain their right to withhold report cards. No one spoke up for parents when this exhausting, debilitating "protocol" was adopted to protect teachers. A whole year could very well fly by before there is a resolution (if any). Or the parent gives up! Parents might best approach this as contract negotiations. 1. Parents enroll the child for intended results. They expect "value-added" achievement for student's time spent. 2. The result is not forthcoming — the student strived, the parent monitored, the school failed their obligation. 3. Remedies should be sought. I think those were very just and reasonable remedies mentioned in the news story: a) summer school fees reimbursed; b) counseling for students; c) choice of teachers.
6. Disrespect Of Parents In Public School System Jan 19 The issue is that parents find the complaint process ineffective, fraught with discouragements and delays. To overcome all these obstacles parents will often express the wish to bypass all this rigmarole. They consider home education, private schools, or wish we had charter schools which bypass bureaucratic and union conditions. That is why school choice through vouchers is considered. However, don't anyone ever suggest that Diane Ravitch has good research to oppose both choice and charters. At one time she did strongly support these moves but has now moved lock, stock and barrel into the teacher union camp which blocks these moves. Don't say she is "non-teacher union affiliated" ! Just a brief scan of Wikipedia shows her connections: - NEA Friend of Education, 2010 - John Dewey Award, United Fed of Teachers, NYC, 2005 - Director, Albert Shanker Institute She does not trust parents to make decisions on behalf of their children !
7. Each New Generation Of Parents Re-Invents The Wheel Jan 23 It is so unfortunate that parents are so ill-served by the public education system. While all the other players, the teachers with their unions, the trustees with their lawyers and consultants, etc., etc. have loads of resources to advance their interests, parents are always starting fresh. There is little continuity between one generation and the next as parents try to navigate the system. For those parents going before school boards today, in 2012, to plead for some respect and regard for their concerns, please know we've been through this before. In 1977 we even codified some parent rights we'd like adopted. Please read them, print them out, ask your school boards to adopt these basic principles and put them into writing. Parents do have many rights as they advocate for their children. See: http://genuine-education-reform-today.org/2010/04/06/parent-rights-and-their-childrens-education/
Families Last – The BLOB Is Trump Again In BC Education (by Tunya Audain 20110815, comment to Report Card blog by Janet Steffenhagen, Vancouver Sun Education Reporter on “Conflict 101: Fall studies in B.C. public schools 20110812) Oh, the cruelty of the welfare state! The more it says it helps families the more it disempowers and disables. As some of us parents in the 70s used to say – “The helping hand has struck again!”. I’m now a grandparent and I’ve seen 40 years of steady erosion of parent effectiveness in education to the point that we, consumers, have been rendered practically “brain dead” and unresponsive when yet another attack is mounted against the integrity and sovereignty of the family by the system – the BLOB (Bloated Learning Organized Bureaucracy). The granting, by the Labour Relations Board, of permission for public school teachers to withdraw 30 services deemed to be administrative come this fall during the BCTF “strike” is questionable. One of the articles deals with preparing and distributing report cards to parents and guardians. In the world of union shakedowns, 30 demands is not unheard of, but I think the essential teacher function was deliberately slipped in. Report cards are an essential teacher function, not administrative! In Canada it is, ultimately, the parents who are responsible for their children’s education. For those parents who are unable or unwilling to educate or buy education services – and since education is compulsory – there is the government back-up, social safety-net service of public schools. To underscore the importance of an educated citizenry government schools have been deemed an “essential service” – not to be terminated by employee work stoppages. Why am I such a voice in the wilderness on this? Why is no one else protesting, calling “Foul”, or asserting that it is totally ILLEGAL to withhold educational achievement report cards from parents and guardians? How can a parent monitor progress or advocate for better services or withdraw to another school without this information? I don’t see anyone from the stakeholder groups – those who gain their income from this vast, bloated system – speaking out against this travesty. Even the government subsidized parents’ group, BCCPAC, isn’t shaking up the sandbox where all these alphabet soups play in – BCSTA, BCPVP, BCSSA, BCPSEA, etc. Neither will the teacher training universities speak out against the deprivation of this essential parent tool. How can parents be instrumental in their children’s educational progress without this measure? The “Victory!” of excluding parents from a meaningful role in public schools damages civil society. Thus it becomes easy for even some members of the press to have a lop-sided view of how children are raised in our communities. Today’s opinion piece by Shelly Fralic in the Sun amply exhibits this myopic view when she totally blames parents for the riots in Vancouver and England. See today’s Sun “Parents bear responsibility for the recreational rioter” http://www.vancouversun.com/life/Parents+bear+responsibility+recreational+rioter/5255553/sto ry.html Fralic flagellates herself and other parents for “bad parenting”. She quotes the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, who sums up the problem in one word – “irresponsibility . . . it’s a lack of proper parenting, a lack of proper upbringing, a lack of proper ethics, a lack of proper morals, that is what we need to change.” Ms. Fralic – please look up classical conditioning. Two generations of parents have basically had their natural instincts disrupted and in many cases extinguished by the “hands off” policies and behaviors of the public schools. Listen when parents talk about “symbolic” use of parents, that is, parent advisory councils that are kept busy fund-raising, bullying policies which are superficial and unresponsive to parent concerns, incompetent teachers still in the classrooms, etc. Ms. Fralic – upbringing is not only what parents do, it also happens in the schools and community. Parents have been rendered useless and inept in the public schools. Parents have been habituated to being deferential and obsequious to school people. How would you feel if you were treated as a nuisance in your child’s school? I hate to see parents beaten down and defeated. I deplore seeing the building block of society, the family, diminished and crushed. Why is our welfare state so perverted that it serves the interests of the bloated producers not the consumers in the monopoly school system? Parents without choice and without a handle on performance are indeed reduced to “absent” or AWOL status. Professor John E Coons in support of school choice has this to say: “It's a shame that there are no social science studies on the effect of choicelessness on the family. If you are stripped of power—kept out of the decision-making loop—you are likely to experience degeneration of your own capacity to be effective, because you have nothing to do. If you don't have any responsibilities, you get flabby. And what we have are flabby families …” Will anyone please mount a defense for the maligned and excluded parents in light of Fralic’s blind-eye? Will anyone else share my outrage about the illegal withholding of report cards to parents come the new school year”? Please see my website for the legal references : http://genuine-education-reform- today.org/2011/08/08/withholding-student-reports-is-illegal/ Please see today’s three letters to the editor, Sun,” BCTF job action rankles readers” http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Teachers+Federation+action+rankles+readers/5255567/stor y.html http://www.vancouversun.com/opinion/letters/Teachers+Federation+action+rankles+readers/525 5568/story.html http://www.vancouversun.com/opinion/Teachers+Federation+action+rankles+readers/5255559/s tory.html
Collective bargaining between teacher unions and the government is an experience which effectively excludes most people who are intimately concerned with the outcomes – parents, students, taxpayers – the public generally. There are two parties who meet in secret to arrange a peace pact.
Invariably, the teacher union – reading from some international union playbook – produces some “noise” to boost their demands.
This year in British Columbia Canada – following earlier established procedures (so, so civilized, you know) – the teacher union has received a legal judgment from the Labor Relations Board as to what they can and can’t do in Phase 1. There are 30 actions which they need NOT perform – see http://www.bcpsea.bc.ca/documents/teacher%20bargaining/00-WP-Essential%20Services%20Update%20No.%202011-02.pdf
One duty public school teachers can be relieved from doing are preparing and distributing report cards. I maintain this is illegal. I wrote a comment
Parents Undermined By Strike It is the parents who are ultimately responsible for the education of their children. Compulsory education acts were enacted as back-up, the safety net, for those parents unable to educate or afford tutors or private schools. Unfortunately, this provision has become perverted so that the prime beneficiaries now are those in the education industry, not students. This benefit for needy parents has now been universalized. This system has become hostage to the civil servants (public school teachers) now threatening to strike. Withholding reports to parents under the School Act is illegal. Parents depend on regular reports so that they can fulfill their duty. When a student is not meeting expectations the parent needs to know this so as to move the child or press for better services. The government should stand by with a contingency plan — to provide the sum of $8357 for each child whose parents will seek an education in a non-striking school.
Parents Undermined By Strike
It is the parents who are ultimately responsible for the education of their children.
Compulsory education acts were enacted as back-up, the safety net, for those parents unable to educate or afford tutors or private schools.
Unfortunately, this provision has become perverted so that the prime beneficiaries now are those in the education industry, not students. This benefit for needy parents has now been universalized. This system has become hostage to the civil servants (public school teachers) now threatening to strike.
Withholding reports to parents under the School Act is illegal. Parents depend on regular reports so that they can fulfill their duty. When a student is not meeting expectations the parent needs to know this so as to move the child or press for better services.
The government should stand by with a contingency plan — to provide the sum of $8357 for each child whose parents will seek an education in a non-striking school.
In a blog comment one teacher agreed with me – “…withholding reports from parents is illegal and parents need to know how their child is doing.” But, then the teacher goes on, and on, about how workload has increased, and reporting is time-consuming and they deserve raises, etc., etc.
Below is the letter to the Editor of the Vancouver Sun I just sent in (not yet published)
Dear Sir: Re: Job action means no report cards this fall, Sun, August 05, 2011 BC public school teachers have a list of 30 job actions they intend to follow come “strike” time in September. BCTF vice-president Glen Hansman assures parents they won’t see “…any negatives. In fact, things actually may be better for their children this fall.” I strongly disagree with Hansman and the rest of those who believe this is acceptable. In particular I am horrified that the permission has been given to NOT produce or distribute report cards. This grossly undermines parental duty for it is the parents who ultimately are responsible for the education of their children. Without feedback from the school they are unable to judge if learning is going on or just babysitting. If the parent finds that the child is not meeting expectations they indeed have the duty to pursue remedies or to withdraw to another school. The fact that parents are to sign-off on receipt of report cards testifies to the legal recognition of parental primacy. Canada is not a totalitarian country like Germany and Sweden where parental sovereignty or home education, for example, are forbidden. I assert that not fulfilling the report card function as prescribed in the School Act is illegal. The government should be prepared with vouchers for those parents not receiving their obligatory report cards and who wish to seek alternatives to public schools.
Dear Sir:
Re: Job action means no report cards this fall, Sun, August 05, 2011
BC public school teachers have a list of 30 job actions they intend to follow come “strike” time in September.
BCTF vice-president Glen Hansman assures parents they won’t see “…any negatives. In fact, things actually may be better for their children this fall.”
I strongly disagree with Hansman and the rest of those who believe this is acceptable. In particular I am horrified that the permission has been given to NOT produce or distribute report cards.
This grossly undermines parental duty for it is the parents who ultimately are responsible for the education of their children. Without feedback from the school they are unable to judge if learning is going on or just babysitting.
If the parent finds that the child is not meeting expectations they indeed have the duty to pursue remedies or to withdraw to another school.
The fact that parents are to sign-off on receipt of report cards testifies to the legal recognition of parental primacy. Canada is not a totalitarian country like Germany and Sweden where parental sovereignty or home education, for example, are forbidden.
I assert that not fulfilling the report card function as prescribed in the School Act is illegal. The government should be prepared with vouchers for those parents not receiving their obligatory report cards and who wish to seek alternatives to public schools.
MY CONCLUSION
Allowing public school teachers to remove themselves from preparing and distributing report cards is an affront to civil society, contributes to the erosion of the family, and is an utter failure on the part of government and its agencies that are supposed to serve the public interest.
Failure #1 Government Failure in allowing the teacher union to call the shots in bargaining, therefore a failure in governance.
Failure #2 Education in BC is an essential service, and no report cards to parents from a compulsory public school system fails the public interest in neutering parents’ ultimate and primary responsibility in education. A government service in education is the “safety-net” for those parents otherwise unable to provide private or home education or other provision for their children.
Failure #3 The School Act mandates that parents are to receive periodic report cards (failure in statutory duty).
Failure #4 The School Act mandates that parents are to sign-off on receipt of report card (failure in statutory duty).
_______________________
Additional Information 3 days later …
Only the Province newspaper picked up on my fear about the demise of the family via public education. The Labour Relations Board granted BCTF teachers the dispensation from producing and sending report cards to parents in the latest round of teacher bargaining.
A mild editorial called for the BCTF to get their hands slapped. [Shouldn’t they get their hands pulled out of the cookie jar altogether?]
See: http://www.theprovince.com/opinion/editorials/Time+teachers+union+hand+slapped/5232318/story.html
Time teachers’ union got its hand slapped (Aug 10, 2011)
My comment to the editorial
The State Is Stomping On Parents I wrote to newspapers about my fears that parents would be totally excluded from their education duty to their children if the teacher strike prevented reporting to parents. My concern about attendance has now been settled (as of yesterday) and parents will be able to find out from the office if their child is in school. At least we’ll know that babysitting is happening! However, instruction is unknowable unless reporting happens. In Phase 1 of the protest teachers will not prepare or distribute report cards according to union orders. This is in defiance of legislation and I assert that the withholding of student reports about learning achievement is illegal.
The State Is Stomping On Parents
I wrote to newspapers about my fears that parents would be totally excluded from their education duty to their children if the teacher strike prevented reporting to parents.
My concern about attendance has now been settled (as of yesterday) and parents will be able to find out from the office if their child is in school. At least we’ll know that babysitting is happening!
However, instruction is unknowable unless reporting happens. In Phase 1 of the protest teachers will not prepare or distribute report cards according to union orders.
This is in defiance of legislation and I assert that the withholding of student reports about learning achievement is illegal.
Furthermore, by denying tools to parents to enforce their duty actually damages civil society. Is there an international court of law, maybe the ILO, to take this to?
I expect to present this issue to advocates of the family and champions of the individual. The modern “nanny” welfare state does not serve the family well as it is permeated with self interest groups who would expand the state, make work for themselves at the expense of the family and diminish the sovereignty of the family and the individual.
NeoMarxism in Public Schools
How much of the curriculum in public schools is driven by ideological agendas? I’m wondering if progressive education is now becoming more Marxist. More bold and confident.
For a time we had, at our university (Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC), a two-year Masters program in teacher unionism in the works. Can you imagine what a professional, university trained teacher unionist must be like? The first cohort would have graduated this year (2011). Can you imagine what a doctoral degree – a PhD in teacher unionism – would be like?
Or worse still, is progressivism and NeoMarxism such a given, a fait accompli, that it’s not worth challenging? Is the penetration that bad?
Today I had an essay published in our local newspaper’s blog on the topic of the lack of leadership in education. It’s a rather long essay and I mentioned NeoMarxism a few times. Imagine my immense surprise when Google Search engine picked this up within a few hours: NeoMarxism in Public Schools.
I see that the topic is not new, so let’s have a go. I need to know more and so do others. Just what are we dealing with here?
Below is the essay I mentioned.
Opportunists Love the Vacuum
(in Vancouver Sun blog, The Report Card, 2011 02 24)
I’ve written many essays on how the public education system in BC has been hijacked by special interests. The “real leadership” in BC education is “behind the scenes” – pulling the levers and calling the shots. The system is one Big Swiss Cheese – full of holes and opportunities for squatters!
I will try to show how opportunists – the keen movers and shakers – assume leadership roles, influence and control in BC.
1. Teacher Union Calls the Shots in BC
I explain how the BCTF, through stealth and intimidation, has acquired the role of “parallel government” in BC. I point to Thomas Fleming’s research paper which pinpoints the year 1972 (NDP wins the provincial election) when the teacher union under “radical Marxist” Jim MacFarlan gained its foothold in education matters. I point to the current president, Susan Lambert, arrogantly acting like THE BOSS, saying BCTF should be consulted as a matter of course on educational matters.
http://genuine-education-reform-today.org/2010/12/14/teacher-union-calls-the-shots-in-bc/
2. Teacher Union Narrative Sets a Toxic Tone
I ask why should the BCTF’s left-wing ideology continue its dominance. The population in BC generally splits 25% committed left, 25% committed conservative, and 50% uncommitted middle. Why not have people choose from a plurality of school choices? The ideological left, however, opposes school choice because they want everyone “socialized” in one system for one system!
I bring in the matter of university professors adding to the left-wing education narrative. UBC’s Charles Ungerleider decries the media reporting “neoliberal” values of “individualism, choice, competition, productive efficiency, and private enterprise.” The opposite of neoliberalism is neoMarxism. Does Ungerleider suggest the media should extol neoMarxist values?
SFU Professor Donald Gutstein quotes a Marxist economist in his plea to reframe BC education.
http://genuine-education-reform-today.org/2011/01/21/teacher-union-narrative-sets-a-toxic-tone/
3. Wiping the Slate Clean Won’t Solve the Testing Wars
The BCTF has a predictable annual agitation campaign. Any union issue will do. This last decade it’s been the FSAs. (Campaigns are used for purposes such as — to stay in the public eye, to radicalize teachers, to test mobilizing techniques, to threaten and cajole, to form coalitions, etc.) Many trustees, school boards, and now the principals/vp association have joined the resistance.
The BCTF exploitation of parents in this cause is unconscionable. It is the height of usurpation and violation of the trust of parents – parents who are so eager to do what’s best for their children. Parents don’t readily see the politics behind their ill-usage. I show how a BCTF article in their magazine boldly says that in lieu of a teacher boycott there should be a “Parent Boycott”.
http://genuine-education-reform-today.org/2011/01/25/wiping-the-slate-clean-wont-solve-school-testing-wars/
4. Who Should Rule Education – The Government or Teacher Union?
BC is seen as cowardly in face of BCTF threats. The national paper, the Globe and Mail had an article on the matter. Over 130 comments. I made 4 comments explaining to other Canadians our pitiful circumstances. I reiterated how it was time for school choice, that vouchers would be welcome so that parents could choose non-conflicted schools.
I showed how lay control via school boards is compromised by trustees who pledge to support teacher union causes in exchange for electoral support. I mentioned C&D and SLAPP tactics being used to chill debate and criticism by the public.
I was delighted when the story and comments flushed out another element in the “behind the scenes” control of education. I said: “What has remained hidden till now are the Masters of the Game, the university people behind the scenes. And, there are many professors, deans, departments, programs, foundations.”
http://genuine-education-reform-today.org/2011/01/28/who-should-rule-education-the-government-or-teacher-union/
Ungerleider in another paper on Globalization states that teachers in BC “have achieved a measure of professional autonomy and influence unparalleled in other North American jurisdictions.” The upcoming bargaining promises to be fierce!
Frankly, talking about THE SYSTEM is part of the problem. We don’t need big-time leaders! There should be no one big system. No hierarchies. No central control. Devolve the system so that the smaller units, the schools, are self-managing with their own local leadership subject to their own boards of directors. The model of our independent schools should be followed. New Zealand did the devolution route in 1989 (the same year the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union dissolved.)
We need to devolve in BC education and the mechanism for that is equal vouchers for all qualifying students K-12 with the funding following the student to the school of the parents’ and students’ choice. Let there be strong leadership at the local, grassroots level! That is what contributes to a more civil society versus our volatile hostilities now being suffered.
Who Should Rule Education — The Government or Teacher Union?
This question arises because in British Columbia, Canada, the BC Teachers' Union has successfully, over a number of years, undermined the value of standardized testing — the Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA).
The national newspaper, the Globe and Mail, had its columnist, Gary Mason, weigh in on the matter with his position: "BC, not the union, should run education"
Comments now number over 130 and the debate continues to rage.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/bc-not-its-teachers-union-should-run-education/article1884019/
These are four of my comments to the G&M online discussion:
1. Who is calling the shots in BC education?
Since 1972, when the NDP swept into government in BC, the teachers’ union has ruled the roost in matters education. They gained a foothold into the corridors of power, learned the in’s and out’s of influence, and have never relinquished their beachhead since.
Gary Mason now asks the crucial question: BC or BCTF to rule education? Looks like a showdown at the Victoria corral is imminent regardless of who the premier will be.
We are a laughing stock to the rest of the world if we continue to follow the BCTF script.
What bothers me the most is how the BCTF gets others to do their dirty work for them. Gary Mason mentions how parents have now been recruited to withdraw their children from the tests.
Yes, it took two years, but that script has now borne fruit. It was their October 2008 newsmagazine that published the call: “We need a parent boycott”. The article considers the reasons why teacher insubordination or a boycott would not work:
- Divisive of teachers – pits activists against dissidents
- Political suicide – the public doesn’t really understand
- Legal suicide – teacher boycott would be ruled an illegal strike
Therefore, VOILA, the paper goes on, “we must strengthen and refine our existing efforts to undermine the tests and support a powerful parent boycott.” http://bctf.ca/publications/NewsmagArticle.aspx?id=16804
Of course, on top of past successes with parents, more “tweaking” must go on. “Our job is to empower them in that task” that is, get MORE parents than ever to withdraw.
As a grandparent I deeply resent the way teacher unions have contemptuously treated parents in the past, and I’m ever more distressed how current parents are being co-opted and exploited to fulfill the BCTF agenda.
I urge Gary Mason to do a follow-up story on the many ways in which the BCTF has been recruiting parents – the YouTubes, the parent conferences, the advocacy organizations they fund and expedite, the capture of school boards, the research papers, etc. It would blow your mind!
It’s wrong, and very unfair to parents, to students, and society as a whole.
2. Parent and Student Choice Desired
("Give the unions a choice – get with the program – or everything goes on a voucher system." [bigred85] This was a response by a reader. I agreed as below:)
I agree. We need a voucher or tuition tax credit program so that people can choose their preferences in education styles. If people choose progressive schools with progressive teachers that don't like testing they would still have to recognize that taxpayer dollars have to be accounted for. There would still be government monitoring of the effectiveness of dollars spent — to see if the job expected was being done.
3. Parents and Community Did Not Forfeit, They Were Usurped
(Another reader felt it was the parents and community who should run education, but observes that "that basic right" has been forfeited a long time ago. [rbairos] My reply below)
Yes, parents and community and media may have been sleeping, dozing, or turning a blind eye while the teacher unions gained more and more power and benefits.
But, because the BCTF has such tremendous funds at their disposal — far superior to any other lobby group in BC — they can mount very sophisticated propaganda and promotional campaigns. They readily promote coalitions and quickly sponsor advocacy groups at the drop of a hat.
The very concept of a lay public school board has been substantially compromised by educators in BC. Because we have no conflict of interest rules governing, we see many teachers, ex-teacher union officials, public service union officials, etc. being elected as trustees. We’ve even seen candidates offered teacher union electoral support if they signed pledges to support teacher union agendas.
How does this picture sit with you? Teachers on both sides of the bargaining table?
The teacher union, furthermore, is quick to issue C&D (Cease and Desist) letters to those who criticize a bit strongly and it doesn’t hesitate to use SLAPP (Strategic lawsuit against public participation) processes to have a court decide if a person has defamed or just spoken too pointedly.
This is not unique to BC. Teacher unions internationally are a factor in cowing people into acquiescence and compliance with their projects – undermining of standardized testing being just one such campaign.
In BC they are so successful because they have been politically, militantly active since early 70s.
4. The Debate Rages
I have consolidated my comments on this debate and placed them in a logical order on my blog — Genuine Education Reform Today.
Who is calling the shots in BC education?
Parent and Student Choice Desired
Parents and Community Did Not Forfeit, They Were Usurped
I’m not doing this to bolster my views, but as background for what comes next.
I want to highlight the importance of what our columnist, Gary Mason, has been able to achieve. His article has flushed out a critical player not yet heard from.
While the debate is urgent it has remained at a rather local level, the teacher unions, the ministry of education, the parents, etc. What has remained hidden till now are the Masters of the Game, the university people behind the scenes. And, there are many – professors, deans, departments, programs, foundations, etc.
Please read today’s letter to the editor on this issue from Heather Lotherington, Professor, Multilingual Education, Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, Faculty of Education, York University, Toronto. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/letters-to-the-editor/jan-28-letters-to-the-editor/article1885541/
The letter is titled “Testing, testing”, written in educational jargon and conceptual convolutions that I find difficult to follow. I do get some of the sarcasm lobbed at “aging politicians who support standardized tests.” In other words, she is for “contemporary literacies” which invalidate such old fashioned tests as those that check for the 3Rs.
Lotherington and the whole linguistic industry seem to have an agenda which needs huge public attention. Why is there such a resistance to teach reading anyway? How will people decipher history? Twitter won’t do it?
The progressives who talk like this are responsible for dumbing-down and it’s very costly, to our children, our future, and to our wallets.
Has anyone every calculated how much taxpayer money goes to these high falutin, pompous and pretentious studies going on in our universities? And the cost to our civil society?
