Public education is undergoing a transition in British Columbia and more change is undoubtedly coming down the pipe.
On April 30, four of five B.C. Court of Appeal justices ruled the provincial government had not violated the constitutional rights of teachers by legislating contract changes in 2002.
The B.C. Teachers' Federation (BCTF) and public education teachers have based all of their legal efforts to convince the courts the B.C. Liberals unconstitutionally ripped the guts out of the collective agreement it had with the province's pubic school teachers in 2002.
Premier Christy Clark was the education minister in Gordon Campbell's B.C. Liberal government at the time, and this move saved the province $336 million.
The province passed Bill 28 that eliminated protections on class size and composition; cut support for special needs students; and stripped teacher bargaining rights.
B.C.'s public education teachers have been opposing this legislation ever since – through strikes and teacher action and through the courts.
The decision by the Court of Appeal justices overruled B.C. Supreme Court Justice Susan Griffin's 2014 ruling in favour of the teachers.
The BCTF will now have to pay back the $2 million Griffin awarded to the union.
This will cause problems for BCTF president Jim Iker and his union leaders who have indicated they are being forced to take the latest ruling to the Supreme Court of Canada in hopes of having it overturned.
So what happens next?
The B.C. Liberal government will continue constructing the building blocks for its personalized learning plan for public education, which it sees as student-centred education tailored to each student’s unique set of interests, learning styles, strengths and needs.
To reach this goal, the government will redefine the roles of the school, teacher, student, and parent/family in learning.
Personalized learning will be accomplished by improving connections between student learning, curriculum, instruction, classroom-based assessment and province-wide assessment, according to the ministry website.
Ultimately, the provincial government hopes personalized learning will supply a better education geared for specific outcomes for children.
With better technology, it has been suggested older students would be able to access some course material through interactive online broadcasts with a teacher or teaching aide available on site to offer assistance.
Were that to come to pass, it would mitigate some of the growing costs in the education system in terms of teacher numbers, as well as facility costs by increasing usage beyond the 9 a.m.-3 p.m. envelope.
This would change the face of public education as we know it today.