The Editor,
Re: "District updates inclusion policy review," News, April 9.
I read with interest the comments of Kathy Champion, director of instruction and learning services for Richmond School Board.
It is definitely a testament to Richmond teachers and educational assistants that this district's policy of inclusion attracts special needs students from outside the district.
However, given that resources to meet the needs of these students are strained to say the least, I wonder if this is a good thing. Teachers, educational assistants, school administrators and I am sure school board personnel are well aware of a very important fact: for years the education system in B.C. has been strained to the breaking point by lack of provincial funding.
This began in 2002 when Christy Clark, as education minister, illegally tore up teachers' contracts.
Since the 1990s, teachers had focused on improving student learning conditions rather than substantially increasing their own salaries during contract negotiations.
Class size and composition limits helped to ensure that special needs students had the qualified teacher and educational assistant help they needed.
This benefited every student in the class. When Ms. Clark proudly, as she described it, passed a law to remove these limits, educational conditions immediately began to deteriorate.
When the Liberal government subsequently imposed contracts with modest salary increases for teachers but refused to fund these increases, it meant that school boards were forced to cut: programs, teachers, educational assistant hours, resources and supplies not to mention things such as school maintenance and janitorial services.
Yet the process of inclusion has continued and, as Ms. Champion pointed out, the needs in certain categories, such as students with autism have increased dramatically.
Many special needs students today have a complex combination of learning needs, social, emotional and behaviourial issues and may also be learning English and experiencing Canadian school culture for the first time.
The provincial Liberal government estimated that, with this legislation, it removed $275 million from the education system each year. The BCTF estimates that since 2002 a total of $3.36 billion, which should have been available to education B.C.'s children, has been siphoned off into provincial coffers.
This has meant a loss of 1,500 specialist teachers.
What has this meant for public education? It has meant huge unmanageable case loads for remaining special education teachers.
It has meant that students new to the district are usually dropped into classrooms without any kind of assessment.
It has meant that students can wait months or even years for diagnosis and because of this go without adequate support in classrooms.
You can imagine the strain that this creates on learning conditions in classrooms. Many teachers and educational assistants feel that they are reaching a breaking point.
Richmond School District is to be commended for its philosophy of inclusion and for its efforts to maintain inclusive programs in the face of the Liberal government's funding cuts.
Given that it attracts special needs students from elsewhere, it appears that other school districts may have given up.
Gilbert Smith Richmond teacher
