Stay up to date on news, events and special features.
Government Preparing Legislation to End Labour Dispute with Teachers
Education Minister George Abbott has asked his staff to work through the weekend to prepare back-to-work legislation aimed at ending a labour dispute with B.C. teachers.
Abbott made the announcement Thursday after a senior official in the Labour Ministry concluded a negotiated deal was “very unlikely.”
“I am satisfied now that for the days, weeks and probably months ahead, a freely negotiated collective agreement is an impossibility,” he said. “I will be moving as quickly as we can on this.”
He said students are paying the price for the dispute and he can no longer “in good conscience” allow the job action to continue.
A back-to-work bill could be introduced in the B.C. legislature as early as next week.
Vancouver Sun full text article here.
By Lindsay Kines and Rob Shaw, Victoria Times Colonist February 24, 2012
lkines@timescolonist.com
rshaw@timescolonist.com
Click here to read more stories from The Victoria Times Colonist
BCTF decries ‘second decade of cuts in BC schools’
The BC Teachers’ Federation is calling the latest budget freeze on education spending the beginning of a ‘second decade of cuts’ to B.C. schools.
Finance Minister Kevin Falcon announced education spending would remain at $4.7 billion per year until the 2014/15 school year, with an additional $165 million doled out during that period for the Learning Improvement Fund, the government’s yet-to-be announced-solution to the removal of Bills 27/28 after the B.C. Supreme Court rule them unconstitutional last year.
Although no actual cuts to education spending are being made, the Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) says not keeping up with inflation will force districts to cut programs and services to the tune of $100 million this year in order to balance their budgets.
“A whole generation of students have grown up going to school in larger classes without adequate support and a lack of specialist teachers to meet diverse needs,” BCTF President Susan Lambert said in a press release issued by the union this afternoon.
“Now we’re looking at another three years of ongoing cuts and increasing demands on teachers to fill the gaps and meet students’ needs.”
Lambert says school spending would need to increase by $130 million per year to keep up with inflation, and says the $165 million for the Learning Improvement Fund won’t cut it.
“The LIF amounts to mere pennies per day per child,” Lambert says in the release. “This is a massive theft of educational opportunities from the next generation of BC kids.”
By Katie Hyslop February 21, 2012 04:21 pm – The Hook Education Blog
Katie Hyslop reports on youth, education and poverty issues for The Tyee and others.
(c) The Tyee Newspaper
Budget: No real spending boost for public education
The only real spending boost for B.C. public schools in the coming year will be a modest, previously announced fund to help teachers deal with special-needs students in their increasingly diverse classrooms, according to budget documents released today.
But apart from that new learning investment fund, which will distribute $30 million next year and a total of $165 million over three years, the basic grant for public education is expected to remain relatively flat for three years at an annual $4.7 billion a year. Average spending for K-12 schools will grow at only 0.6 per cent next year, down from 1.1 per cent during the previous two years and 4.8 per cent between 2005-06 and 2008-09.
The post-secondary sector faces similar restraints.
In delivering his budget today, Finance Minister Kevin Falcon urged the 60 school districts – especially 17 in and around Metro Vancouver – to reduce costs by sharing more head-office functions. Districts now spend about $840 million a year on administration, operations, maintenance and transportation services and could expect savings of three to eight per cent by following the Health Ministry’s approach to shared services, budget documents suggest.
It’s advice school officials have been hearing for years.
In addition, school districts, universities, colleges and others in the public sector are being told to sell surplus properties to raise money for other projects. A recent government review identified more than 100 surplus properties and estimated that disposal of some could produce a net gain of about $700 million. Falcon said 40 per cent of those properties are in the education sector and proceeds could help finance other capital projects.
As expected, the budget offers no money for a pay hike for B.C. teachers, whose union recently proposed a 15 per cent increase in a three-year deal. The B.C. Teachers’ Federation (BCTF) and the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association have made little progress during almost 12 months of bargaining, and a government fact finder is expected to report by Thursday on whether a negotiated deal is possible.
“Let me be perfectly clear,” Falcon stated in his budget speech. “We are not prepared to borrow money to pay for public-sector wage increases today and send the bill to our children tomorrow.”
The post-secondary sector also received a tough message, with government calling for reductions in administrative budgets by $20 million in 2013-14 and $50 million in 2014-15. Savings must come from travel, executive overhead and support services, but not classrooms, the minister said.
“The province will work with universities, colleges and other institutions to help ensure that front-line programs are not affected,” he told the legislature. “And we believe (this) one per cent cost reduction is very achievable.”
As in the K-12 sector, the average annual increases for post-secondary are shrinking – to 1.6 per cent a year in the coming three years from 3.4 per cent during the past two years and 6.5 per cent between 2005-06 and 2008-09. Annual spending for post-secondary is about $5 billion.
Overall, education will consume a smaller percentage of annual government spending at 26.8 per cent in 2012-13 compared to 27.6 per cent two years ago.
Written by: Janet Steffenhagen
Click here to read the entire article.
TD National Reading Summit III: Vancouver, B.C. May 2nd to 5th, 2012
Creating a National Reading Strategy for Canada: About the National Reading Campaign
The National Reading Campaign is about creating a reading strategy for Canada. It is about engaging Canadians in exploring what a Canadian reading plan would look like, and what we would expect the key outcomes to be. In short, it is a campaign to incorporate and promote reading as a central feature of 21st century Canadian citizenship.
The National Reading Campaign had its beginnings in 2008, when a coalition of readers, parents, writers, editors, librarians, bookstore owners, teachers, publishers and distributors came together to assess and consider the changing reading habits of Canadians. Learn more about the Reading Coalition here.
The first forum, held in 2008, proposed that a National Reading Campaign be developed over the course of three Reading Summits. The first Summit was held in Toronto in 2009, the second was held in Montreal in 2011 and the third will take place in May 2012 in Vancouver.
Why do we need a National Reading Campaign?
Becoming a reader is at the very heart of responsible citizenship. But as we find ourselves caught in the fierce updrafts of an information hurricane, we often lose sight of what reading — as an intellectual activity — contributes to our sense of self, our cultural awareness, our capacity for self-expression and, ultimately, our notions of engaged citizenship and the collective good. Reading, after all, is about so much more than a technical act that allows us to communicate, consume media and perform the activities of daily life. To be literate is necessary, but it is not enough.
Read more about the Summit here.
~information and links from the National Reading Campaign website