The Editor,
Well, the numbers are finally in. The Christy Clark government figures if it costs $12 million a day to pay for B.C. teachers, they will pay $12 million a day to B.C. parents for child care and tutoring.
This offer says a lot about what the government values in the work teachers do, and what carrot they can dangle to get parents on their side.
But wait a minute, parents are thinking, “what do you mean just childcare and tutoring, and only up to age 13?”
What do teachers actually provide for that $12 million per day?
Well, it’s definitely more than providing childcare. They teach multiple literacy skills, language, math and sciences, critical thinking, provide counseling, coaching, tutoring, behaviour modeling, etc. etc.
Besides that, they teach our kids all the way up to age 18. Now that the figures are in the open, it looks to me like we taxpayers are getting exceptionally good value for our money.
I’m glad the government has made it clear what the “childcare” portion of teachers’ work is worth.
Let’s see them get back to the bargaining table and seriously tackle all the rest.
De Whalen
Richmond
