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LETTER: Teachers' strike a sad affair

B.C. Liberals headed for privatization of schools, says reader

Re: BCTF will be pushed to settle, (Our View, Aug. 13)

It’s sad to think your editorial “BCTF will be pushed to settle” might be right. Maybe the B.C. Liberal government “holds almost all the cards” and the teachers will have to fold.

I’m not a teacher and I’ve no school-age children. I think it’s sad that teachers in B.C. can’t be paid on a par with comparable professionals. It’s sad that students in B.C. can’t have the decent education ordered by B.C. courts.

It’s sad that parent are held hostage to government scheming, $40-per-day bribes notwithstanding.

It is especially sad that the word not mentioned in your editorial, the word hypocritically avoided by B.C. Liberal government, is: Privatize.

This is a long term threat to almost all of us. Teachers might get whipped -- this time.  Students might be subject to substandard education -- this time.

Then the campaign will go on until finally public education is destroyed. Assets will be sold for pennies on the dollar in massive privatization; big money will be made; shares in New B.C. Education Inc will soar; schools will be theatres where captive children absorb corporate ads. And there’s more: already public health care is on the block.  Public transit? Forget it. This is about building private fortunes for the super-rich (the real power behind B.C. Liberal government).

Your editorial may be right and the teachers will lose. The kids will lose. We’ll all lose, unless maybe we all push back together.

Greg Holloway

Saanich