The Editor,
I met with my liberal MLA John Yap, to discuss this government's vision for education and what that will mean for my three young children.
He was inarticulate and uninformed about the day to day challenges and realities of today's public school classrooms. He dismissed specific challenges in my children's school around class size and special needs as "rhetoric." He implied that I was precluded from having an opinion on behalf of my children since I was a teacher in the district.
He defended his government's spending of over $200 million per year subsidizing private school fees as "choice for B.C. parents."
If net zero is the absolute outcome, then these funds will go a long way towards resolving the very real and pressing needs in our children's classrooms.
To those who argue that they pay public school taxes AND their child's tuition: Yes, you do, but you also pay taxes towards our provincial medical system for services you may also never use, like an emergency room in a town you've never been to.
It's part of living in a society that values all members equally.
Can you imagine the outrage if this government started subsidizing private clinics that catered to those who sought to "skip the line" for services, like an MRI, already provided by the public system, to citizens who could afford to pay the premium charged by private facilities or clinics?
Citizens who want to opt out of the public system, for whatever reason, must pay out of their own pocket without any expectation of government assistance.
I urge everyone, regardless of your opinion of the BCTF or the teaching profession, to call your MLA to express your disinterest in having your public tax dollars pay for Christy Clark's son's private school education.
Megan Zeni, Richmond
