Mr.

Keith Baldrey
Legislative bureau chief Global News
I am writing you to express my disappointment with your recent articles regarding teachers and our
public education system.
When you compare how much is spent on public education vs private education you are basically
comparing apples to oranges. Public education is a corner stone of our society, it is a system in place to
give every child in this Province access to a good quality education. Private schools are only accessible to
a very select few citizens, as such they should be funded privately not by hundreds of millions of public
tax dollars every year.
By continuing to decrease funding to public schools and increase to private ones our government is
essentially depriving the majority of children in this Province of their basic right to a good quality
education.
You would be hard up to find a district in this Province that isn't struggling to balance their budget and
maintain even the most basic services for our students, this is not because they aren't trying or haven't
made enough cuts or picked the low hanging fruit. Sd68, for example is where my son attends school. In
recent years we have closed numerous schools, cut over 200 teaching positions, cut and consolidated
numerous admin positions, cut bus services (many parents now have to carry the burden of $1800 a
year for buses to get their kids to school) cut extra programs and services, we also have numerous
partner groups we work with to help lower costs, yet we still face a $4 million shortfall this year
(considerably lower then some other districts)
Maybe you can help explain with all of the cuts in recent years why public schools deserve less funding?
Or why private schools which advertise lower class sizes, more one on one, better class selection and
have up to date facilities deserve more funding on top of the private funds they collect ?
Comparing the amounts spent between private and public is an unfair assessment because at the end of
the day $315 million PUBLIC tax dollars are being spent on a service that is only available to a very select
few in this Province, all while public schools across the province have children showing up hungry, have
text books that are not even close to being up to date (and in some schools children have to share text
books), have buildings and playgrounds that are deemed unsafe, have cuts to programs, classes and
support every year and special needs students receiving no extra support.
Across this Province right now there are thousands of students that are being left behind, the system is
failing them and it is in no way our teachers fault, it can all be traced back to funding issues.
"A well educated society commits less crime, pay more in taxes and contributes more to society"
In regards to teachers I think they go above and beyond their job, they put in more hours, more care and
more of their own money into their job the any other group of workers in this Province. I've seen
teachers bringing food to school to feed the children who are hungry, I've seen them spending hours
after school volunteering to give students sports, arts, music and other extra activities they might not
otherwise get. I've seen them in stores buying supplies with their money to help teach and engage their
students as much as possible. In what other job would you see this?

They do this while taking Neverending abuse from our government, slandering, public tax dollars spent
on advertisment to portray them as "greedy" or "lazy". Bills passed to make them more accountable for
time they voluntary added to the school year so they may engage in professional development courses
to make them better at their job and to give our children a better education.
They do not need more accountability, who really needs more accountability is our government officials.
You know the ones who get paid a ridiculous amount of money and don't show up to work half the time,
where's the accountability there?
On our PAC parents wanted to know what our teachers were doing with their PLC days, guess what, they
provide us with a report every meeting outlining what they have done of those days and how it will
benefit our children. Ask any teacher they are more then willing to share what they have done on those
days, they are always happy to discuss what they have learned and how it applies to their classroom.
They carry themselves with complete transparency, there is no secret to what they are doing, they are
trying to educate the future of this Province, and even with the gross underfunding and undermining by
our government they are still doing a Dam good job.
Ask a government official what they were doing on all those missed cabinet meetings, if you get an
answer I can assure you it won't be anything as productive as what a teacher did on a ProD day.
Please think about this when you are writing your next article. You have a responsibility as a reporter, to
use your voice to create positive change, to report on the things that matter to everyone in this Province
and most importantly to report the truth.

- Sara Miller
Concerned Parent
____________________
Keith Baldrey is Global BCs chief political correspondent and one of B.C.s best known political
commentators.
He joined The Vancouver Sun in 1984, and moved to The Suns legislature bureau in 1986, becoming The
Suns legislature bureau chief in 1989. He joined BCTV (now Global TV) in 1995.
He has covered nine premiers and the 2013 election will be the eighth B.C. election campaign he has
covered (along with numerous federal campaigns and party leadership races).
He also writes a weekly syndicated column on B.C. politics for a variety of Lower Mainland papers,
including the North Shore News and the Now newspapers, and appears weekly as a commentator on
CKNWs Bill Good Show, as well as making regular appearances on other CKNW programs.
He makes public speaking appearances on B.C. politics, has written numerous magazine articles, and coauthored a book on former premier Bill Vander Zalm and his Social Credit government.
He lives in Victoria with his wife and fellow journalist, Anne Mullens, their two daughters, and their Shiba
Inu dog, Teddy.