Re: Premier offers olive branch to teachers (News, Oct. 24)
Premier Christy Clark “imagines” students in grade two continuing through to Grade 12 without any threat of labour disruption.
I would like to assure Clark that all teachers, support staff, families and citizens would also like to see this. However, Clark has lost sight of the most critical detail necessary to bring this to pass.
In 2002, Minister of Education Christy Clark passed Bill 28, Public Education Flexibility and Choice Act, which resulted in removing about $275 million from public education funding each year. This was a devastating blow.
As a trustee and a retired teacher, I also imagine all students from kindergarten to Grade 12 experiencing a highly effective educational experience based on more teachers, less split grades, more learning support, much more counselling support and full-time educational assistance.
I encourage every citizen in our community to realize and support the necessity of reinstating this very essential funding. People need to understand that public education, the great builder of equality, most definitely has the potential to create literate and competent students who then bring greater employment, higher levels of employment, stability, creativity and vitality to our communities.
Deborah Nohr
SD 61 trustee