The Chill in My Blood Today

I have to share with you a deep, visceral fear I have today. 

I feel like maybe if I get it out there something will be done to stop my fear from coming true – you know, like when you were a kid and you told your parent(s) your bad dream in the middle of the night so the nightmare would stop.

I feel a little like Cassandra (the doomed prophetess of the Trojan War) – she whose prophecies were always true and no one believed her.  She could only stand by and watch the terrors of her predictions unfold before her very eyes.

Let me tell you my nightmare of how this strike is going to shake out unless we do something really radical to take back our schools:

The government is hiding something (more than usual), other wise why would they be so rigid in their approach to solving the issues driving this strike?  They are, as Tom Kertes suggested in his Tyee Article “Why Teachers Fear the Worst of the Clark Government,” using the strike as a wedge issue to pull funding and support from public schools.  This government has already made a move toward this through the $40/day scheme.  As Kertes points out, this is funnelling monies targeted for education into a project aimed to pacify “clients,” namely parents, hoping to keep them (1) on the side of the government and (2) financially compensated for their inconvenience.  That’s how schools in the voucher system “win” families – financial incentives for choosing their “brand.” 

We, by we I mean I, have already begun to see this “branding” of schools and the need to “win families” under the guises of “declining enrolment.” Each school has been forced to compete with each other, trying to “sell” their school based on their extra curricular activities or academic standings in fake rating scales from fake academic experts like the Fraser Institute.  Every January/February the competition begins with Grade 7 Open Houses nights in my district.  We try everything to put on the best show.  Never mind that we have some of the most caring, compassionate adults in the province working in our district – that is not something the Fraser Institute measures…only provincial exam scores…another fake measurement.

The terror running through me is this: 

If we don’t take back our schools before the 23^rd of September (the date being tossed around by a number of people who are not related in any way but have heard the Ministry of Education use this date), when the Liberals are allegedly planning to introduce a  three tiered, sweeping change to the School Act, we will lose our public education system as we know it for good.

Oh and don’t think for one minute that I believe Fassbender, the old liar, when he said that these rumours were “…absolutely, categorically untrue.” This is the same government who denies any wrong doing in the last strike or stripping class size and composition language unconstitutionally from our contract and brazenly snubbed it’s nose at a Supreme Court ruling telling them to stop with the activities they are continuing to engage in. 

Let me be very clear here:  I BELIEVE NOTHING THIS GOVERNMENT SAYS AND THAT IS WHY I AM SO TERRIFIED BY THE RUMOUR.

The government has already used the Supreme Court case to attempt to bankrupt the BCTF and Bill E-80 would guarantee that this government never has to address class size and composition issues ever again.

In addition, unless I am giving Clark and Fassbender too much credit for having this many “smarts,” they knew that no teacher in her/his right mind would bargain away their rights visa vis E-80, thus building an unbreakable barrier to true bargaining. 

Layer on that the huge pain in the Ministry’s ass, a.k.a Class Size and Composition (CS&C), having to pay out for kids in classes with Ministry Designations (codings) and having to pay out for teachers to keep class sizes down, and you have some seriously raw bargaining issues – for both sides: on the side of the BCTF (the people who actually know what is going on “on the ground”) and the government (the people who are only concerned with the “bottom line” and do not care if they stomp the BCTF into the ground).

Now I hear that the minister is tossing around the threat of legislating us back to work.  This was also discussed by Kertes.  His idea was that only some of us would be declared an essential service and forced back, thus dividing the membership by forcing us to cross each other's picket lines.  Despicable.

The funnelling of surplus provincial revenue, essentially created off of the backs of striking teachers, back into the general coffers, rather than back into the education system, effectively starves the system even more.  This leaves the doors wide open for corporate sponsorship to come in and rescue the schools with private funds – blackmailing schools with ideologies which may not be in society’s best interest.  Just imagine: Science 10, Biology 11/12, or Earth Science 11 brought to you by SunCorp or Imperial Metals. 

Let the great social brainwashing experiment begin. 

Without the teaches union, and CUPE for that matter…our “right hands” in the school…in place to speak for every student’s right to an education which allows, nay, encourages them to think critically about what they are learning and the world around them, vouchers will be brought in.  All of those “top kids” will be funnelled into one school, the “middle kids” into another, and the rest will be left to their own devices in over crowded, under funded, neglected schools.  The tired and burnt out will be forced to work as admin and teach there because everyone else will be competing for the “top” positions in the “top” schools.

If your kid is a “top” kid and you don’t care about anyone else – you are probably in a private school already.  If not, your “top” kid is going to win a place in “good” schools. 

But what if your kid is brilliant, poor, and has a learning disability or can’t travel great distances to go to the “good” school outside of your catchment area? 

What if your kid has anxiety and can’t always go to school?  “Good” schools won’t take your kid because they don’t need to handle his/her issues.  Your kid can go to a different school and your kid's place will be filled with someone who can handle the rigours of competitive academics.

What if your kid has behaviour issues?  Health issues?  Is physically or cognitively compromised and needs specialized curriculum delivery?

I’ll tell you because I’ll watch it happen:  your kid will have his/her own school.  They will be isolated more than they already are and our society, the society of British Columbia, will be divided.  The “top” kids will grow up thinking they are privileged and will treat people as the “top” schools teach them to treat those who are not like them:  with disdain.  Why should they be forced to face the differences in others when the school system raises them to be elitist?

This is no joke.  And, believe me, I wish I were exaggerating.

Under the guises of “accountability,” the government will make all kinds of strict rules around teaching and academic delivery which will flush all of the personality and care out of the profession.  Tests scores will be king (more than they are now) and teachers will get bonuses for high achievement numbers.

Hey, guess what?  You can put any number you want in a marks book.  You just have to make the criteria fit the mark. 

So my kids in my school – after the 23^rd – will not get any extra money for more supplies or equipment because my kids don’t score as well as the kids at the school with the “top” kids.  All of the “top” kids have been seduced away from my school and only the most needy, challenging kids are left.  They are just as academically talented as their “top” peers but they use the “Fuck” word too much and that separates them from the other kids.

I’ll still be there, though.  I will never get a raise, rock star or not, because I let love, not personal advancement, guide me.

Bottom line here is that we have to take control back from these bureaucratic liars, cheats, and thieves. 

Vancouver can rouse itself to riot over something as vacant as hockey; surely to God, it can find the passion to rally around the rights of all kids in this province to a good education regardless of their socio-economic background.

I don’t know what else to say.

Really bad things are going to happen, people, if the government is not taught the hard lesson that they are elected to do what we want, not that we are powerless to do anything but what they demand.

It’s time to take the Clark government to school – push for a General Strike so we can hit this government in the only place it feels it…in the pocket.

All of our kids deserve the best – not only the elite few.