To my School Board My name is Bobby Arbess. Despite the long-winded speech I am about to deliver, I am not running for a position as a school trustee. I am here to talk about unity, which ironically I may be doing at the risk of offending individuals who themselves have dedicated their time and resources for the betterment of learning conditions for our kids. For this, I apologize in advance. Recent events in the mistreatment of our teachers in this province have made me angry and if my anger alienates anyone, for this I am sorry. I am a parent of a Grade 7 student at Central Middle School, who is in French immersion and who, despite the privilege of being in a program that probably has far fewer kids within the range of diverse learning or behavioural challenges, than in the rest of the public school system, my son is in every other respect like every other student in the BC public school system: His educational experience, his relationship with academic learning and his love of school would most likely be greatly enhanced If his classes were smaller, if he had teachers who werent overwhelmed or burnt out, who received an honourable remuneration for their important contribution to society, who were listened to when they tried to advocate on behalf of their students needs, who didnt have to spend their own income to create a stimulating classroom environment, who didnt have to go to court or stand on picket lines or lose months of their salaries to uphold their basic civil rights, who had more time to do what they become teachers to do: to help each child learn and find out what makes them tick, what inspires and interests them most, what ways of learning work best for them, if there were the necessary resources to make school really work for EVERY kid, regardless of socioeconomic, linguistic or cultural background, gender, family environment or ability. My son is like every other child of this generation growing up in a BC public school system, which has been steadily and systematically gouged, stripped, robbed, starved of its resources as this government has waged a war of attrition on public schools, very sadly defunding, devaluing and dismantling the once thriving, robust BC school system in favour of the votes and election campaign donations that come with lower taxes and reduced public services. A government that puts its own hold on political power and the interests of its corporate sponsors, above the needs of its own children. This is what we, all the advocates of a fully funded quality public education system are dealing with in BC. This is the common threat we all face and so within that context of what unites students of this generation and all of their advocates, I am here to speak to you, our school trustees, our foremost advocates and to call for unity amongst ourselves, to set aside the diverging agendas that do not allow us to work together properly for our kids best interests. As a a parent, I was not alone in my awareness that the teachers right to bargain for effective limits on class size and composition were at the crux of what drove our BC teachers to withdraw their labour for five weeks on the picket lines this year, fighting to restore what the BC Supreme court has now twice ruled was illegally stripped from their contract in 2002, by this provinces now Premier. This egregious breach of their very constitutional rights, censured by the ILO of the United Nations, laid the framework for the stripping of billions of dollars of funds from our schools, bringing about the massive decline of BC public ed which at the end of the day has hurts the kids most, especially those in need of the most attention and support. This I believe we must all admit, if we are all of us are to deliver on the promise of a fully functioning, diverse, supportive and integrated classroom environment for all kids. Knowing full well that the court-recognized rights to the restoration of stripped language and resources was what our teachers have been fighting for in the courts, on the picket lines and through bargaining, it was very surprising and somewhat disappointing as a parent, to find out during the last days of the summer holiday, with no resolution of the the standoff between teachers and government in sight, that the BCCPAC in a letter to mediator Vince Ready, was advocating the same position for lifting limits to class composition which was implemented in Bill 22 and which directly undermines what the teachers have fought for in court and have twice won, a position which by its disregard for the courts ruling, admonishes the governments unlawful treatment of its very own teachers, a situation which I consider totally unacceptable. As a parent, I cannot consent to bodies that claim to represent me, in taking a public position that unwittingly or not contributes to the violation of teachers rights and which seeks to undo the gains they seek on behalf of our children. I am here to say the VCPAC and the BCCPAC do not speak for me. I refuse to accept an oversimplified notion, contained in the CSF, that somehow the teachers struggle to bring about better classroom supports for the 90,000 BC public school children with special needs designations, constitutes a form of discrimination. It is another slap in the face of teachers and as a parent, I am appalled at this divisive tactic that could only work to drive a wedge between parents who BCcPAC and VCPAC, claim without our consent, to represent and our teachers who have been at the forefront of the struggle to defend public education for thirteen years and longer. This is no way to create the unity that we all need to join together as teachers, parents, school boards and administrators to take on the real threat to public education in BC and that is the policies and ideological agenda of this government and its efforts to dismantle and privatize public services. We must stop our in-fighting and at the risk of sounding bullishly partisan, disassociate ourselves from those pushing the Liberal government agenda from within the various public education bureacracies, including the PACs. If the PACs will not properly canvass their members to see who agrees with what is being advocated in our name or if alternatively they wish to stifle discussion on these issues because they are too political, we will have no choice than to organize ourselves, in advocating for what we know is best for our kids, in carrying on what the teachers have started, to keep exposing and confronting this government for its brutal cuts to public education and to win back the just reinvestment into our schools, which our kids most undoubtedly deserve. I thank you for your time.
Posted on: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 09:19:40 +0000