[posted to The Province comments, 20140821 on “The disgraceful truth about school dispute, Mike Smyth]
Parents As A THIRD FORCE In BC Education
Because this latest teacher strike befell at some of the most inconvenient times for students and their first responder advocates — their parents — a lot of penetrating questions have been raised. Firstly the graduates were tripped up in June. Now, it is parents who are without any certainty as School Start looms with little hope of September days. On top of that, taxpayers are grousing for rebates of school taxes.
The biggest question, of course, is: Why has this turmoil been allowed to happen so frequently for 40 years? Is it truly governance failure — by governments of various stripes be they socialist, conservative or liberal — buckling to demands of a public sector union for the sake of “labor peace”?
The Minister of Education says that the dysfunctional paradigm of legislated “return to work” orders has to be broken — that he wants a negotiated settlement — that parents have told him they too want a negotiated settlement.
That parents are being brought into the picture in concrete ways is a real breakthrough — finally, the true “owners” of the educational responsibility are getting some recognition. The $40 day payout to parents if the strike continues is verification of their obligation to see that education of their children happens. Even if they have to do it themselves through home education, tutoring or finding other learning opportunities. The parent info website is also another outreach to help parents find alternatives and keep them abreast of developments.
This would not have happened if the BC Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils had not been active. They wanted a collective voice in matters educational in BC and wanted to support the rights of individual parents who want to play instrumental roles in their children’s education.
It is this promised or inferred sharing in decision-making that is, however, making the education establishment nervous — teacher unions in particular, then some academics, then administrations and bureaucracies who like the status quo. Assertive consumers are not welcome. Thus we see that interminable school wars between the union and the government are NOT unwelcome. In fact, the teacher union may even be seen as a convenient scapegoat by which the monopoly public service is kept relatively stable.
Whatever happens in the end regarding this strike, this is an opportune time for parents to make sure that overtures for involvement go beyond lip-service. Parent rights need to be enunciated and written down. The concerns about special needs need to be wrestled down — audits re current spending, are there sufficient teachers equipped to teach appropriately?; are parents able to access resources in a timely manner?; etc.
And let’s face it, teachers and education system. Parents do want their children to read proficiently. When will there be a sincere commitment to this goal for all students? The basics are foremost in parent minds if the system would only listen. Accountability is something parents and taxpayers want assurances about.
In a democracy those most affected are supposed to be involved. Time to cut parents into the front lines of decision-making.
This Third Force in the education picture in BC is a most welcome event. Let’s build on it!