Break Up The BCTF!

As a taxpayer and a parent, I have a serious problem with the BCTF. It is a troubled and outdated organization that demands to be dissolved. The public school system is in complete disarray from what it is meant to be. This is not to say that government isn't partially to blame for this mess, but it is to say that the BCTF is a very large and dangerous element within it.

Our society has a fundamental tenet: If you work harder, you will reap the rewards of your labour. In fact, school teachers supposedly teach this to children: if you work hard you will improve your understanding of the course material and your grades will also rise. Why then, does the BCTF under their "union flag" not apply this same tenet to their staff? Exceptional teachers are paid the same wage as poor ones. Where is the incentive? Furthermore, it is nearly impossible to fire or replace substandard teachers as the union protects them to the "end". It appears that a teacher can only lose his/her job if they commit an offence, and then some of these retain their posts at that! How disturbing. Sounds like communism.

How about the "tough" working conditions for BCTF Teachers? It's really quite fantastic: First you have a nine or ten month work year (instead of 11 or 12 months like most other people). You have all the major extended break school holidays including, but not limited to, Easter, Spring Break, and Christmas. Not to mention that the entire summer is yours. If you are at home sick, you have an infrastruction that ensures there is a replacement in your position for the day (or however long you need it). You have all the major benefits of pension, medical, dental, short and long term disability etc etc. This sounds like a great job, if one is pre-disposed to be a teacher and has the education and talent for the job. The "temper tantrum" we are currently seeing as expressed by the BCTF's illegal strike is an unfortunate "lesson" to our children. It teaches that "if you don't get your way, you simply break the rules, yell, and scream until you get what you want". I don't want my three children to attend that lesson. Tantrums shouldn't be allowed to work for 3-year-olds, nor should they be allowed to work for teachers.

I am baffled as to the audacity of the BCTF to demand that their workers have "perpetual protection" when it comes to wage increases, job security, and continued improvement in working conditions at the expense of everyone else. As a self employed individual, if my clients do not approve of my services, they simply move their business elsewhere. I must always look to ensure that I am working to the best of my abilities in order to retain my clients and their business. I must EARN their trust, respect, and their business. Most non-union jobs run this way. In the general non-union environment, one is paid for the quality of service provided or one loses the client, the job, or the project Pure and simple. Within the BCTF, it is a gold-plated existence for those who fail to meet the most basic of standards in education, as they are carried along in the "union current" of undeserved rewards. Sounds, again, like communism. I really feel sorry for the exceptional teachers who are caught up in the BCTF without any means to leave the union. They are underpaid.

In Kelowna, the spokesperson for the BCTF mentioned that some teachers have crossed the picket lines. He mentioned that the BCTF is not a "strong-arm" union so these people will not be "threatened". But, strangely, in the same breath he made mention that these teachers could have their membership in the BCTF revoked, and if their membership is revoked they cannot teach in the Province of B.C.. Hmm....sounds strangely like a threat to me. The BCTF and its "hard core" members must have forgotten what an illegal strike and "contempt of court" charges actually mean. Those teachers who crossed the picket lines did not want to break the law. I don't blame them. Maybe they would rather not be in the union. Although, we must remember, they do not have this right as teachers in the Peoples' Republic of the B.C.T.F.. Union membership is mandatory. Communism has failed everywhere in the world where it has been attempted, and B.C. is no different. Why are we trying to make it work here?

Here's another "kicker": The public school system is excess-funded to the tune of many tens of millions of dollars annually by all of us B.C. taxpayers who choose to send our children to Christian or private schools as our "right" to have our children learn within a non-secular environment.. At my children's Catholic Elementary school the parents pay entirely for the capital costs of buildings and must fund the teacher's payroll by 50% since our tax dollars are not able to be allocated to our children's school (unlike in the Province of Alberta where taxpayers allocate where their tax dollars go). In our Province, the B.C.T.F. benefits, unfairly, from my tax dollars which don't reach my children's school. And because of this funding shortfall for thousands of B.C. taxpayers whose children attend private schools, our children do not get the most up-to-date programs, computers, school buildings etc.. that the public system enjoys. If the BCTF can't function with all this over-funding, how could they ever manage if my tax dollars were allocated away from them and to my own children's school! How pathetic! Our Catholic school runs on a fraction of the budget of a similar public school and the level of education is superior. Case in point: Throwing good money after bad is not a logical course of action.

Nobody is holding a "gun" to the heads of BCTF teachers. If they don't like the working conditions so vehemently, then get another job like the rest of us. One final point: If the BCTF actually cared for the students instead of its own selfish interests as it has mentioned time and again, why didn't the BCTF strike during the summertime when it would not affect the lives of over 600,000 children?

Yours truly,

Maurice Matte
(a concerned tax-payer)