A political rant aiming to explain why BC teachers so stubbornly fight for better funding of public education.
Short answer: to limit gross inequalities and protect democracy.
Por estos dos motivos, defensa de JOH solicita repetir juicio
Why Teachers Strike
1. WHY
BC
TEACHERS
STRIKE
a
presentation
aimed
at
people
who
care
to
understand
our
position
2. To
understand
where
teachers
are
coming
from,
it
is
pertinent
to
look
at
what
has
happened
in
the
US
over
the
last
few
decades,
because
the
current
BC
government
has
been
pushing
us
in
the
same
direction.
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
(The
US
is
the
greatest
economy
in
the
world,
what
could
possibly
go
wrong?)
3. We
are
at
a
point
where
the
famous
1%
richest
citizens
have
decided
to
stop
paying
for
the
rest
of
us—like
we
weren’t
the
workers
and
consumers
who
made
them
rich
in
the
Oirst
place.
4. “For Premier Christy Clark, the
BC Teachers' Federation has
become Moby-Dick, the object of
hatred to be pursued to the ends
Another
problem
is
that
the
BC
Liberal
leadership
feels
very
strongly
that
of the earth.!
teachers
are
a
nefarious
bunch
and
must
be
beaten
into
submission.
!
Their
tactics
in
dealing
with
us
are
less
than
benevolent,
to
put
it
mildly.
!
So,
every
time,
we
are
forced
to
go
on
strike
because
government
proposals
are
deliberately
outrageous*. Bill Tieleman
Clark has become Captain Ahab,
driven mad in her desire to
destroy the union version of the
white whale.!
That became apparent last week
when the BC Liberal government
announced what is a truly crazy
plan -- to pay parents of students
$40 a day if the union strike
continues into September.!
Crazy, because it makes no sense.!
Clark's scheme would instantly
dispose of the estimated $12
million in daily savings from the
strike without putting a penny
into improving public education.”
http://billtieleman.blogspot.ca
5. *
The
BC
Liberal
treatment
of
teachers
was
found
unconstitutional
by
two
supreme
court
rulings—to
no
avail,
as
these
people
are
effectively
above
the
law.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/bc-supreme-courts-bad-faith-ruling-hardens-
divisions-between-teachers-province/article17106343/
7. BC
curriculum
is
continually
revised
to
favour
job
skills
over
anything
else—we
are
led
by
people
who
want
schools
to
produce
cheaply
trained
workers
rather
than
critically
thinking
citizens.
8. Anything
you
need
to
do
to
enrich
your
intellectual
life,
you
can
pay
for
it
yourself.
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
But
who
can
afford
private
Art
or
Music
classes?
Not
the
middle
class,
if
the
1%
keep
running
the
show.
9. BC
teachers
have
opposed
FSA
tests.
That’s
because
the
FSA
budget
could
be
spent
on
helping
kids.
10. The
business
community
who
manages
this
province
is
obsessed
with
accountability.
They
believe
that
a
good
teacher
is
someone
who,
out
of
a
class
of
30
students,
should
reliably
produce
30
reading
and
counting
units—
FSA
tests
are
designed
to
measure
just
that.
!
Our
masters
do
not
want
to
know
how
much
of
our
time
is
spent
addressing
social,
emotional
and
mental
health
issues.
Yet
a
hungry
child
cannot
memorize
multiplication
tables
;
a
bullied
and/or
suicidal
teenager
will
rarely
care
about
descriptive
paragraph
writing.
!
FSA
tests
measure
none
of
those
factors,
yet
they
are
used
to
determine
which
schools
are
worth
investing
into.
BC
Liberal
logic
never
deems
it
wise
to
invest
in
“bad”
teachers’
struggling
students,
it
believes
in
rewarding
success—so
money
seldom
goes
where
it’s
most
needed.
Therefore
BC
teachers
will
continue
to
oppose
FSA
tests.
11. If
teachers
gain
a
decent
salary
increase,
it
will
empower
nurses,
police
ofOicers,
government
workers—the
whole
working
class—to
negotiate
a
fairer
share
of
the
pie.
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
(Not
a
good
thing
if
you’re
a
BC
Liberal.)
!
12. We simply can’t afford to pay
!
you more in this economy.
!
Don’t
they
know
that
we
in
the
middle
and
working
classes
are
their
best
customers?
13. We,
the
middle
class,
largely
spend
our
money
where
we
live:
we
buy
houses,
cars,
TVs
and
clothes,
we
go
to
restaurants,
we
visit
the
local
pubs…
provided
we
can
afford
to.
We
do
not
send
billions
of
dollars
to
Switzerland
or
to
the
Bahamas
so
they
can
elude
the
Taxman.
(Note
how
the
North
American
middle
class
consumption
is
only
expected
to
go
from
5.5
to
5.8
trillions—about
5%
over
20
years.)
14. HERE
IS
THE
BOTTOM
LINE:
Money
that
goes
to
the
middle
class
is
money
that
will
get
re-injected
into
the
economy
and
therefore
create
jobs.
!
Anyone
with
an
offshore
account
is
removing
wealth
from
Canada—then
they
tell
us
we
can’t
afford
to
properly
fund
public
schools.
15. According
to
the
BC
Liberals,
we
can’t
afford
to
fund
a
decent
public
school
system
for
the
average
BC
child.
!
To
be
fair,
here
is
the
kind
of
institution
where,
whether
or
not
they
get
their
tax
cuts,
their
own
children
are
educated
:
(This
is
a
view
of
the
independent
St.
George’s
junior
school
in
Vancouver.
Not
bad,
eh?)
16. Here
is
the
awesome:
BC
“independent”
schools
are
funded,
in
non-negligible
part,
with
our
tax
dollars.
“Provincial funding for private schools has risen at a much
higher rate than it has for the public system. According to
B.C. Teachers' Federation estimates based on Ministry of
Education numbers for the 2014 budget,
the public system's funding increased by 16.9%
between 2005 and today.
The private system's funding increased by 45.6%.”
Crawford Kilian, BC's Private School Boom, TheTyee.ca
17. Why
stop
at
$136,270
and
$150,000?
Billionaires
live
in
this
province!
If
we
taxed
another
(totally
random
numbers)
1%
on
people
earning
1
to
5
million
a
year,
2%
on
people
earning
5.1
to
10
million
a
year,
3%
on
people
earning
10.1
to
30
million
a
year,
4%
on
anyone
above,
THESE
GUYS
WOULD
STILL
BE
GAZILLIONAIRES,
the
difference
would
change
nothing
to
their
lifestyle.
18. If
these
people
cared
about
our
country,
they
would
pay
their
fair
share.
They
earn
indecent
sums,
why
shouldn’t
they
pay
proportionally
indecent
taxes?
20. Take
a
look,
for
instance,
at
the
main
BC
Liberal
backer.
In
2011,
their
net
income
increased
by
43%,
according
to
Wikipedia.
Do
you
really
believe
the
key
problem
in
this
dispute
is
that
the
Teachers’
union
is
too
powerful?
21. “On his first day in office 12 years ago
Premier Gordon Campbell slashed
B.C.'s personal income tax rate across
the board by 25 per cent.
!
Campbell also reduced the corporate
income tax rate and eliminated the
corporate capital tax.”
Doug Ward,
BC Liberals' 12 Years of Tax Shifts, Explained,
TheTyee.ca
22. No
such
thing
as
a
free
tax
cut:
here
are
some
of
the
decisions
inspired
by
the
resulting
loss
of
revenue.
www.kidsinvictoria.com
24. “I hear all this, you know, ‘Well, this is class
warfare, this is whatever.’ No. There is nobody in
this country who got rich on his own. Nobody.
“You built a factory out there? Good for you.
But I want to be clear: you moved your goods
to market on the roads the rest of us paid for;
you hired workers the rest of us paid to
educate; you were safe in your factory because
of police forces and fire forces that the rest of
us paid for. You didn’t have to worry that
marauding bands would come and seize
everything at your factory, and hire someone to
protect against this, because of the work the
rest of us did.
“Now look, you built a factory and it turned
into something terrific, or a great idea? God
bless. Keep a big hunk of it. But part of
the underlying social contract is you take a hunk
of that and pay forward for the next kid who
comes along.”
Photograph by Nigel Parry for Vanity Fair
US
senator
Elizabeth
Warren,
!
explaining
why
we
are
NOT
advocating
for
communism,
but
for
a
more
balanced
capitalism.
This
is
not
about
eliminating
inequality,
it’s
about
keeping
our
society
healthy.
25. Teachers
don’t
believe
the
current
movement
toward
unchecked
inequality
is
good
for
our
society.
26. Some
interesting
people
agree
with
us.
This
is
what
a
man
who
wants
to
help
his
country
sounds
like.
That,
to
me,
looks
like
“leading
by
example.”
27. “In a capitalist economy,
the true job creators are
middle-class consumers.
!
And taxing the rich to
make investments that
make the middle class
grow and thrive is the
single shrewdest thing
we can do
for the middle class,
for the poor,
and for the rich.”
!
Nick Hanauer,
CEO, early Amazon investor
“Anyone who’s ever run a business knows that
hiring more people is a capitalist’s course of last
resort, something we do only when increasing
customer demand requires it. In this sense, calling
ourselves job creators isn’t just inaccurate, it’s
disingenuous.”
28. Meanwhile,
the
BC
Liberals
do
things
like
this,
then
they
tell
us
we
are
unreasonable
when
we
beg
for
3
or
4
%
a
year
so
we
can
keep
up
with
inNlation.
29. If
we’re
going
to
talk
about
accountability,
how
have
the
BC
Liberals
earned
the
right
to
raise
their
own
salaries?
31. But
Canada
and
the
US
have
arguably
reached
a
point
where
government
feels
more
like
an
oligarchy
(a
powerful
few
always
have
their
way)
than
like
a
democracy
(a
majority
of
people
feel
like
the
state
works
on
their
behalf).
34. “You Teachers keep whining, but the BC liberals were
democratically elected. They are doing what people want,
so you need to shut the hell up and take it with a smile.”
Speaking for myself, here is why I can’t do that:
!
1. the government has illegally ripped up our contracts—the electorate
not seeming to care about it doesn’t make that fact any more palatable,
2. it is a fundamental democratic right to express our views and try to
get the citizenry to see our side of the argument,
3. the neediest citizens tend not to vote (basic belief that no party
cares about them… so why bother?),
4. few people actually want to know what’s going on. Many are
satisfied to save a few hundred bucks on their taxes, not realizing the
cost in lost services until unfortunate things happen to people they care
about,
5. unfortunate things are happening to people I care about—I work
with kids who need support or adaptations ; I see colleagues
overwhelmed with increasing “special needs” students having to choose
every day whether they should slow everyone down or leave those kids
behind,
6. working with other people’s children in no way eliminates my
responsibility to provide for my own family.
35. “I am a Canadian,
free to speak without fear,
free to worship in my own way,
free to stand for what I think right,
free to oppose what I believe wrong,
or free to choose those who shall govern my country.
!
This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind.”
John Diefenbaker
36. The Great Gatsby, Warner Bros Pictures
For
the
record,
I
love
that
some
people
get
to
be
multibillionaires,
it
gives
the
rest
of
us
something
to
dream
about.
37. But
as
a
democratic
society
we
have
a
moral
obligation
to
give
our
less
fortunate
citizens
the
means
to
improve
their
lives.
!
The
fact
is
public
education
plays
a
huge
part
in
fostering
social
justice.
38. So
here
is
your
assignment:
do
your
own
thinking.
If
you
feel
the
BC
government
is
doing
a
great
job,
congratulations,
you
get
to
do
nothing.
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
If
you
believe
they’re
doing
some
damage,
please
consider
using
your
voice.
39. To illustrate my points I have used cartoons by David Horsey,
who has chronicled the evolution of American society
for the Seattle Post Intelligencer and the Los Angeles Times,
winning two Pulitzer prizes in the process.
!
(I hope this man is disturbingly wealthy.)
http://s100.chasejarvis.com