10) HOW B.C.'S
"FAMILY-FRIENDLY" PREMIER ATTACKS EDUCATION AND CHILD CARE
Extracts from the Main Political
Resolution adopted by the 39th BC Provincial Convention of the Communist Party
of
B.C. Liberal
Premier Christy Clark claims to head a "family friendly" government.
But a look at the realities of public education and child care tell a different
story.
In 1931 the
BC Tory government under pressure from the "business community"
funded a study on how to improve the provinces finances during the depression.
The "Kidd Report" launched an attack on education that was so odious
and vicious that even the Tories could not implement it. Nevertheless it was
admired by the BC "business community" and formed the bedrock of
decreased funding, cutbacks and teacher bashing that has guided the political
agenda of the BC capitalist class and their successive Social Credit and
Liberal governments ever since.
Except for a
brief respite, far from perfect, during NDP terms, the battle lines in BC have
been drawn between a business culture with little respect for education and far
less for educators and the needs and aspirations of working people.
Business sees
education as a preparation for their labour
requirements, the conditioning of working class youth to whatever the present
mode of production or service demands.
Teachers and
parents see education as a possible liberator, a social institution expanding
quality of life and a quantity for social change.
In a period
of rapid technological advancement and a general acute crisis in capitalism,
why should billions be spent on educating people who are basically surplus labour? Why not design an elitist system that can
"cherry‑pick" the brightest for high tech needs, steal
immigrants trained at someone else's expense, introduce private "for
profit" schools for the elite and downgrade the public system as a holding
apparatus for those destined for cheap manual labour
and "McJobs". This whole scenario is an
attempt to roll back the clock on the accomplishments of educators, primarily
teachers, and the evolution of education as an institution of the people.
The
skirmishes and engagements fought by BC teachers are significant and
courageous, reflected in the public support they have had and their victories
in the Supreme Court. The people, including organized labour
with teachers at the front, progressive school board members and the social
justice movement, are locked in a struggle over education fought out over
funding, or more precisely the lack of funding. The control of public money is
the hangman's noose tightening around the school boards and their ability to
protect and deliver the wages and programs the educational system needs.
The massive
transfer of money from the working population into the corporate sector,
accompanied by a huge reduction in corporate taxes to keep it there, and income
tax breaks for the wealthy, is paralleled by equally massive cut‑backs in
funding for all social programs with health care and education at the top of
the list.
In five of
ten provinces, teachers are paid from $14,000 to $18,000 more than B.C.
teachers who once were the best paid in
In 2010‑11
there were 3,627 classes with over 30 students, in violation of the School Act.
In the same period there were 12,000 classes with four or more special needs
students, when the Act limits the number to three. Who is enforcing regulations
and the rule of law in BC?
From 2001 to
2009 there were 176 school closures, more than any other period in B.C.
history. The government claim that there are 73 new schools is false.
Forty-seven were replacement schools, 24 were from the capital plans of the previous
NDP government and only four were proposed and initiated by the Liberals. There
is no net gain, only loss.
ESL student
numbers are up; the numbers of teachers needed to service them are down.
Special needs students are up; teachers are down. This is the pattern. The
education system needs more funding. K-12 funding from 1991 to the present, as
a share of the provincial budget, has dropped approximately 11%. If the
corporate tax rate was restored to 2000 levels, there would be almost $2 billion
to spend on social programs and education. Clearly education funding is tied to
general tax reform.
Senior levels
of government in
In 2008 there
were 567,000 children under the age of twelve living In B.C., and 358,000 of
these children's mothers were in the paid workforce. Yet in 2011 there are only
97,000 licensed child care spaces. The average provincial cost of infant care
is $900 per month and over $1000 in the Lower Mainland. According to UNICEF and
the OECD, the worst policy approach for child care is where public funds are
delivered to private providers through vouchers or subsidies for which there is
little accountability. The largest proportion of the B.C. child care budget
goes to such subsidies, directly into the profits of private providers who are
increasingly invading the market.
The strongest
child care systems are those that are publicly funded, owned and operated.
"For profit" child care is the poorest quality, most costly and most
inefficient. In B.C. the child care budget is only $300 million, of which $80
million is from federal transfers. (The new roof for BC Place cost $563 million.)
The Minor Capital Grants that provided up to $5000 for emergency and building
maintenance were cut to $2000 in 2009, and then abolished entirely.
The Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC proposes a
"Community Plan for a Public System of Integrated Early Care and
Learning" that addresses not only the needs of children and working
parents, but improved wages and conditions for child care specialists. The plan
is a publicly funded, and operated proposal that would
establish child care for as little as $10 per day, and free for families with
an income of less than $40,000 per year.
The
government's priorities are clear, and Christy Clark's family rhetoric is a
cruel sham. For the Communist Party of BC, this will be a major issue during
the May 2013 provincial election.
(The above
article is from the February 1-14, 2012, issue of People's