The tentative agreement between the sa国际传媒 government and school support staff brings a certain sense of relief, but it鈥檚 only a lull in the perpetual state of negotiating. The time and energy spent hammering out contracts detracts from the education of children, and we must put those children first.
Canadian Union of Public Employees local presidents across sa国际传媒 have endorsed a deal that will see non-teaching school employees receive a 3.5 per cent wage increase spread over two years. It鈥檚 a modest increase for a group that hasn鈥檛 had a raise in four years, but it鈥檚 probably realistic, given current financial conditions.
That agreement warded off a potential strike by support staff, which would have closed schools, since the sa国际传媒 Teachers鈥� Federation had vowed not to cross CUPE picket lines.
The teachers themselves are without a contract. The last contract was signed in June 2012; it was retroactive to the previous year and expired this past June. Talks for the new contract are on hold, and will likely not resume until the sa国际传媒 Supreme Court rules on the dispute between the BCTF and the government regarding the government鈥檚 response to a 2011 ruling by the court.
In April 2011, Supreme Court Justice Susan Griffin ruled the government violated teachers鈥� constitutional rights in 2002 by passing legislation that stripped them of their right to bargain for issues such as class size, class composition and teacher-student ratios. The government was given a year to set things straight, but the BCTF says the measures taken by the government were a sham, and the government has continued using the provisions found unconstitutional.
The contract agreed to last week by CUPE expires next summer. Like most contracts in public education these days, the majority of it is retroactive. It won鈥檛 be long before work will begin on new negotiations.
Round and round and round it goes.
Premier Christy Clark wants 10 years of education labour peace; most parents (and probably most teachers) would be happy just to have a peacefully settled contract that looks forward, rather than back. A constant state of agitation and uncertainty is wearing on everyone, especially students. Too much of the public discussion has focused on labour issues, and too little on education.
That doesn鈥檛 mean teachers should roll over and let the government walk all over them. To be effective, they need to be adequately compensated and reasonably certain about their jobs. They need to be able to work in conditions conducive to good education and strong morale.
Nor should the government give in to every demand from the teachers鈥� union. It is public education, and politicians are elected to safeguard the public interest.
Relations between the two sides must be, to a certain degree, adversarial 鈥� that鈥檚 the nature of negotiations 鈥� but when they are downright poisonous, there are no winners, and the loser is education.
For instance, a report by the Educational Quest Society of sa国际传媒 shows that sa国际传媒 students鈥� performance in math has deteriorated in the 21st century.
Another study of the four Western provinces by the Frontier Centre for Public Policy concludes that math instruction needs to return to some of the basics, that too many high school students are not prepared to take on college and university programs.
At a time when the world is becoming increasingly technical, we cannot afford to let our students slip in math and sciences.
Government and teachers should do the math, and figure out a framework that frees the school system from perpetual negotiation and looks to the future.
