The battle between the B.C. Liberal Government and the British Columbia Teachers’ Federation has kicked up a notch.
The rhetoric has escalated on both sides.
Numbers are being manipulated to provide a presentable front for both sides, as they seek the favour of the general public.
Highly paid spin doctors are busy spinning their webs of deceit by twisting truths and glossing over harmful facts.
It’s the same old, same old.
It is the same two big bullies duking it out in the public arena because both are power-hungry egomaniacs who only care for victory at whatever cost.
So who is left to suffer in all of this mayhem?
It is the students who are being kicked to the sidelines in the big boy’s game, called “contract negotiations.”
This nonsense also negatively impacts the emotions of their parents, and in some cases, the teachers and provincial politicians.
The real victims, however, are our students who will be our future leaders.
What are they learning from the display of ignorance and intolerance?
While the BCTF may be the unionized head of the public teaching profession, we believe its outrageous demands for salary increases and other benefits on behalf of our friendly, neighbourhood teachers are totally out of control and not part of the real world.
We believe our local teachers want, and deserve, some more money, but not the world.
As for the B.C. Liberals, they’re going to the table offering no money, and at the same time, wanting to strip away teachers’ seniority and other classroom governance.
This government appears to be willing to do everything and anything it can to gain public approval before the next year’s provincial election.
Are we surprised this is coming from a government that wants to dig itself out of the huge financial hole it dug by forcing the 2010 Winter Olympics and the Harmonized Sales Tax down our throats?
The problem is there is no real alternative for the electorate to choose as a replacement.