My sweet, five-year-old son Declan, who also answers to “The Destroyer of Nice Things” and “Hey, Hey, Hey Stop Breaking That,” was supposed to start his first day of kindergarten this week.
As the stay-at-home dad and main caregiver for the past few years, I had already prepared myself to stifle back tears and see him off on his new adventure to higher learning (or learning to colour pictures of parrots… whatever they do in kindergarten).
But thanks to the continuing teacher’s strike, he’s still at home, being cared for by his older sister and a teenaged babysitter from the neighbourhood, learning his ABCs in a makeshift classroom we set up in our living room.
As a parent, the strike has brought out a lot of emotions – frustration, anger, a feeling of powerlessness. Some people blame the teachers. Some say it’s the government’s fault. Others say both are making the situation worse.
Personally, I blame premier Christy Clark.
In 2002, when Clark was the education minister during the reign of Gordon “Just One More For the Road” Campbell, she and her fellow ministers gutted the teachers’ contract to save $275 million per year. Then they created legislation that revoked teachers’ right to negotiate class size and composition, provoking the inevitable lawsuits. Twice now, a B.C. Supreme Court judge has ruled that the government had violated teachers’ constitutional rights with this legislation designed to quash their right to negotiate working conditions, included class size and the number of kids with special needs in classes. And in the most recent case, the judge even ruled that the government actually wanted to provoke a teachers’ strike. Of course, the government has appealed.
So, the teachers can’t back down, otherwise they lose everything the courts have already ruled in their favour, and the government can’t back down, because that would be like saying “yeah, the courts were right.”
Meanwhile, my kids’ education is the only bargaining chip that either side has, and they’re stuck in the middle of the fight.
Yes, the teachers’ union’s wage and benefit demands do seem to me a bit excessive, and as a taxpayer I know I’m going to take a hit if they get what they want. But this mess started 12 years ago with Christy Clark, and I’ve come to realize that I actually do have some power in the situation, and on the next election day, I’m certainly going to use it.
