Education changes should not be accepted

Education and your stance on it should never be associated with your political stripe.

However, it’s obvious to me when you hear anyone speaking in favour about the Glaze Report that they are diehard Liberal supporters. To that I would normally say: “Ah well, to each their own.” But not when this decision by the McNeil government involves our children, including my daughter.

How can we accept what’s happening here? Nova Scotia residents voted for four years of school board representation and that is the key some people are forgetting. For the government or anyone to undermine that process is undemocratic and for that government to offer board members a 2.5-year stipend to go away silently is disgraceful.

In a news release recently, one organization called the decision by the Nova Scotia government to overhaul the education system a “threat to democracy and the right to representation.” I have to agree with that statement.

To take union status away from anyone is nothing more than the continued union busting we’ve seen from this government already. To also offer the union $800,000 for the hit to membership is again disgraceful.

Principals and vice principals are not managers and assistant managers.

They have a master’s degree upgrade in their “teaching” degree.

Now the government wants them to “manage” our schools instead of guiding them in the right direction from a teacher with a master’s degree in education.

Education has never been run like a business in our province. At least not until one reaches the university level. It has been tried in places like Ontario but due to the severe rise in grievances and studies that show a decline in the grade scores children are receiving in Ontario since the implementation of recommendations like the ones Glaze suggested for Nova Scotia to proceed with I ask why would anybody suggest we sit back and do nothing about this?

I’m not suggesting, nor is any teacher I’ve spoken to, that the status quo is acceptable because it’s obvious through listening to the teachers that change needs to occur. Change like attendance policy, discipline, behavior, classroom conditions and inclusion, just to name a few, needs to happen. Teachers have been pleading for government to consult with them and were very vocal during the labour dispute last year and they continue to be vocal today. This tells me one thing loud and clear – the government isn’t interested in listening or acknowledging much of anything except the one-track mind approach to beat down these “greedy teachers” and their “pesky union” representation.

Government must be really annoyed now. They can’t blame this one on wages and broadcast salaries of teachers through every media outlet imaginable. This one is about the quality of education of our children. So to all teachers here’s one parent who has your back and thanks for having our children’s backs and best interests as well. Willie Currie Glace Bay