The education of our children is of paramount importance, and whatever WE decide, it will have to be considered with caution and a lot of thought

A ten year teachers contract? It's an idea that our premier, Christy Clark decided to float this week.

One of the things that I heard Christy point out was that with something like this in place, a child currently in Grade 3, would be able to get through all grades to graduation without a disruption.

Hmmm ... but what about a child that is currently in grade 1 or grade 2?

I'm not saying this is a bad idea, but what I question is the need to have a contract going for this length of time.

If I was a teacher, I would sure question whether to have something like this. After all, who knows what economic conditions will be next year ... never mind 6, 7, or 8 years from now.

And what would the government have to give up to get teachers to agree to a contract of that length?? I find it highly unlikely that teachers will go for anything like this, WITHOUT there being a huge carrot at the end.

ALSO ... on top of questionable economic conditions for everyone ... in terms of inflation, cost of living, etc ... how is the government going to know, with any certainty, what the population growth rates are going to be? Will we end up with the government locked into employing teachers where there are no jobs for them?

I just think the whole thing has far to many questions, and uncertainty, to even be considered.

On the other hand ... perhaps if the two sides sat down to look at better ways of working out wage structures, classroom composition, needs of students, etc ... that would be a far more productive and useful idea worthy of consideration.

Why do both sides need to bring themselves to the precipice of strike action every couple of years?

Meantime ... the other day I asked if people had any suggestions regarding issues of importance ... what was working well ... what wasn't ... what we needed to do better.

One of the suggestions and comments that came back to me was:

Since you have asked I will respond with public education and our society's attitude toward being an educated, healthy, happy citizen to ensure each individual person has success within their potential. 

If we do not ensure our students are educated, and, somewhat competitive with themselves as individual to ensure their own success; the majority will not be successful in their chosen career.

I believe the global competitiveness of our world currently, and, growing interest by our current provincial government to increase immigration to ensure employee skills, including trades, technology and healthcare are available, our students need to be competitive right now, and more so in the future.

Public education is crucial to ensure all aspects succeed - education is the foundation of all societies in developed and underdeveloped countries.

I agree with this totally – although I have asked them for clarification on “public education” which they underlined and had in bold font. I am not sure if this means they are opposed to funding of children in private schools.

Another person stated:
Rein in the BCTF - most teachers "in the trenches" want to teach but, unfortunately, they have permitted left-wing ideologues to get control of the union. The public in general is fed up with the BCTF and all of their "bleating"!

I would make it easier for charter schools to expand - we have a lot of schools that have been shut down for lack of students, charter schools are always on the lookout for new "digs" and their student enrollments are increasing!

I do think the teachers union has been a little left leaning, but then again I tend to be on the right-side of the political spectrum.

That said, many will have read comments I have made before with regards to strikes in the government sector. My personal viewpoint is that if a service is provided by the government, then it is essential, and a disruption should not be permitted.

That does not mean that government should have a heavy upper hand.  Only that we need a better system in place, so that contracts can be negotiated, perhaps through the use of third party mediators who would be in place from the start of all talks?

I also think that this person, when they speak of 'charter school', is perhaps referring to private schools ... or even some of the various schools within the public system that have been developed over the past couple of years (ie: Beattie School of Arts).

Another idea that crops up every now and again is the voucher system. 

That system would see all parents receiving an equal amount of money for their child’s education, and the parents could then enroll their child in any school this wished, as long as it met with government curriculum standards.

I thought in the past this might be a good way of doing things – I've changed my mind however over the years. I now believe that we would end up undermining the entire public school system ... and on top of that ... it would be entirely unworkable in rural communities and the north.

There is however one thing that I feel fairly certain we can all agree on ...

The education of our children is of paramount importance, and whatever WE decide (government, teachers, school trustees, parents, and students) it will have to be considered with caution and a lot of thought.

I'm Alan Forseth in Kamloops ... with the thoughts of one conservative.