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The Art Zone – Educational Resource
Check out The Art Zone – from the National Gallery of Art interactive educational resource website.
Make a work of art online!
BC post-secondary presidents warn about implications of spending cuts
Post-secondary institutions have sent a stern letter to the B.C. government in response to the recent provincial budget, which ordered them to trim administrative spending by $70 million in 2013-14 and 2014-15.
“It is critical for government to understand that the $70 million reduction to institutional grants over the last two years of the fiscal plan, combined with five years of unfunded inflationary pressures, creates a strain on the operations of post-secondary institutions,” the presidents of 25 schools write in a letter to Advanced Education Minister Naomi Yamamoto.
“It is particularly concerning that in Budget 2012, the post-secondary sector is the only social sector to receive an absolute budget reduction, with the inference that other sectors, such as health, have taken action where we have not.
“We must be clear that it is unrealistic to assume that the reductions contemplated by Budget 2012 can be achieved without implications for service levels.”
The letter was described as unprecedented in an NDP release in mid-March (which would have been reported here earlier had it not been landed on the eve of the BCTF AGM). Find the letter here.
“We have a shared commitment to a strong post-secondary education systen and we do not want to see a decline in a system that is seen as one of the best in the world,” says the letter, whose signatories include Stephen Toope of UBC, Andrew Petter of SFU and David Turpin of the University of Victoria.
Read The Vancouver Sun full article here.
By JANET STEFFENHAGEN March 26, 2012. 11:58 am • Section: Report Card
© The Vancouver Sun
How to Fix Teacher Bargaining? Ideas from Past BCTF Heads
Years of failed negotiations offer government solutions, say former union leaders.
If you need proof that history repeats itself, look no further than the contract negotiations between the provincial government and the B.C. Teachers’ Federation.
Since the New Democratic Party government pushed bargaining from the local to provincial level in 1995, there’s only been one successfully negotiated teacher collective agreement.
During that period legislation has been passed, teachers have walked out, fines have been issued, and classes have been cancelled, and when negotiation time rolls around again both sides profess a desire for change, but change doesn’t happen.
The current case is Bill 22: the Education Improvement Act, which introduces a mediator to the equation, but rules any decision must meet the government’s net-zero mandate, which teachers refuse to accept.
Read The Tyee full article here.
By Katie Hyslop, 26March2012, TheTyee.ca
Teachers warn of new job action including full shutdown: ‘Our members are angry,’ BCTF president says
The B.C. Teachers’ Federation has warned the Liberal government to radically change its approach to public education or face more protests by teachers, including the possibility of a provincewide shutdown of public schools.
“Our members are angry,” union president Susan Lambert told a news conference a day after she was re-elected to head the organization for another year.
She said delegates who attended the BCTF’s annual general meeting this week drafted a “bold plan of action” that will be presented to 41,000 teachers for a vote April 17-18.
While not divulging full details of the plan, Lambert said it includes asking members if they want to withdraw from all extracurricular activities – as teachers have already done in some school districts – and whether they want to walk a picket line in an illegal strike. She suggested a second vote would be called before such action would be authorized.
Read THE VANCOUVER SUN full article here.
jsteffenhagen@vancouversun.com
Blog: vancouversun.com/reportcard