*

‘EDUCATION

By BETTY GRIFFIN

“T don’t know why Heinrich’s bothering
__ torevise the School Act. We won’t have any
Schools left at this rate,”” commented Chris
Taulu, chairman of the Vancouver District
Parent Representatives, in response to new
disastrous budget cuts being forced on Van-
Couver schools by the Minister of Educa-
- tion, who, at the same time, has launched a
-Made-to-fail study of education -entitled
- “Let’s talk about schools”.

Taulu neatly sums up the idiocy and

toria whose dollar-chopping acts endanger
the very life of our public education system,
Our children, and our future.

Responding to mounting demands by
trustees, teachers, parents, the NDP, the
Communist Party and the two daily papers
for a royal commission into education and a
_ Tevised school act, Heinrich established a
Secret committee in early summer which
_ hatched the now infamous Let’s talk about
Schools, a thirty-page document which is
Supposed to start a province-wide discus-
_ Sion resulting in a revised act.

"The document was meant partly to
_ deflect criticism of Heinrich’s hatchet job on
budgets. But he was met with such outrage
_by the 300 trustees, teacher presidents and

the scene, pursued by a group of angry
_ Shouting trustees including the chairman of
_ the West Vancouver school board — not
Noted for such vocal outbursts.

Was to receive public comments during

has been boycotted by the B.C. Teachers
Federation which was not allowed to decide
which of its members would sit on the
Committee. And now three members of the
_ Temaining twelve have resigned — Burnaby
School superintendent Dr. ‘Froese, B.C.
School Trustees Association executive
director Dr. Armstrong, and Joy Leach,
irector of Development, Simon Fraser
hiversity and former president of the trus-
tees. :
___ That leaves nine members which include
three of the top people in the ministry, one
Private school teacher, one pre-school
teacher and the rest administrators. Not one
1S a representative from a parents’ group.
Somehow, with scarcely any money to
function, this committee is to collect and
_ Summarize the ideas of everyone concerned
about educaiton in B.C. and submit it to
Victoria by the beginning of February, no
doubt so Heinrich can introduce in the
_ Spring legislature an already written school
act drafted by former education minister
Brian Smith a few years ago.
_ One really must examine the discussion
Paper to see how invidiously it develops a
Fraser Institute type of reasoning — posing
Questions based on evidence which is either
faulty or out of context or is alluded to as
“public opinion”; when actually it is solely
the government’s privatization, centraliza-
tion policy and restraint legislation.
_ What it exludes from discussion is what
all the present uproar is about, the devasta-"
tion now going on in our schools.
“A Statement of Concern for Public

by the Association of B.C. School Superin-
tendents, March, 1984 summarizes it well:

“In 1983 unprecedented stresses deve-
Oped within the public education system as
provincial government sought with
bvious haste and a minimum of consulta-

Uistricts, to rectify what it saw as shortcom-
Ings in quality and effectiveness, and to
duce the costs of public schooling under
rubric of ‘fiscal restraint’. :

“The changes already implemented have
Caused fears that increased centralized con-

uate public education system, one which
incapable of adjusting to changing cir-
mstances and unable to meet the needs of
| children in the system. Moreover, the

hypocrisy of the Socred government in Vic- |

Superintendents he had invited, that he fled

Even his hand-picked committee which —

_ January and regurgitate it all for Heinrich, _

Education in British Columbia” published -

On to tighten its control over local school

manner of announcement has suggested
that these, and future changes, will take
place in a new climate, one characterized by
heavy-handedness and an unwillingness to

reconsider. A partial list of actions causing

concern is:

“(1) The imposition of an absolute ceil-
ing on each school district’s budget, includ-
ing removal of the long established right to
augment the level of service through local
levy, should the local board of school trus-

’ tees so wish; © ~

“(2) A conscious and openly stated goal
of returning to the levels of educational ser-
vice of the mid-70’s,; .

“(3) The stated intent to reduce the cost:
of instruction over a three-year period by
increasing the provincial pupil-teacher ratio
to that of 1975-76, and to reduce arbitrarily
the number of teaching positions to achieve
this. : 3

“Educators are concerned by the clear
corollary that the provincial government
intends to revamp the public school system
according to its own inclinations. . .The net
result of these actions is that the provincial
government has contributed to the erosion
of public confidence in the public school
sytem. In particular, substance has been
given to criticisms based primarily upon an
unthinking acceptance of the relevance of
the current debate on public schooling in
thesy:S.”

The unprecedentedly critical document
by the superintendents also contains a posi-
tion statement of ten items well reflecting
the major concerns of both professionals
and the public, and generally aimed at pre-
serving our public school system with local
control restored and sufficient funding pro-
vided to deliver effective educational pro-
grams. ;

Public opinion has certainly turned
against further attacks on schools. The two
resolutions passed by the nine Greater Van-

_ couver school boards demanding the return

of local taxing power and a moratorium on
budget cuts this year have been endorsed by
many other boards including Port Alberni
and Courtenay where there have. been
“more parent protest meetings than
Christmas concerts” according to one trus-
tee.

More and more, parents are becoming
outraged and in Coquitlam, 800 of them
walked out on their Socred MLA ina public
meeting angered by the prospect-of losing
60 to 100 teachers immediately. Meetings in
Kamloops, Prince George and Salmon
Arm were packed with hundreds of con-
cerned parents and no doubt with the news
of the 1985 budget cuts there will be massive
protests throughout the province.

A significant meeting of “stakeholders”
was held Nov. 28 and another is scheduled
for January. Invited to the meeting were the
presidents of the BCTF, B.C. School Trus-
tees Association, B.C. Home and School,
B.C. Association of Colleges, CUPE,
College-Institute Educators’ Association,
Canadian Federation of Students, Associa-
tion of B.C. School Superintendents, Uni-
versities of B.C., Victoria and Simon Fraser

Socred schools policy creates uproar

and their faculty associations, and the B.C.

Federation of Labor. According to Craw--
' ford Kilian, education columnist for the

Province, such organizations are preparing
their own public commission to begin oper-
ations this spring. “One way or another,
Victoria will learn a lot next year,” he con-
cludes. . :

The Communist Party has consistently
demanded free, non-sectarian, universal,

. quality education to be funded mainly by

senior government, and that locally elected
school boards be guaranteed the responsi-

- bility and freedom to provide the best pos-

sible programs to meet local needs.
Let’s talk about schools throws that con-
cept into doubt. “Today. . this assumption

Analysis

(of free universal education) is being
examined — particularly by parents who
wish to school their children at home, and
also by private firms who claim they can
instruct the young in other settings as well as
or better than schools can,” it states. “Asa
result, a new notion of ‘attaining required
levels of schooling’ has emerged to chal-
lenge the traditional idea of ‘compulsory
attendance.’ ”

It goes on to pose the following ques-
tions:

“(1) Are our public schools capable of

_Tesponding to the many and varied needs of

the people of British Columbia?
“(2) Are there are other forms of school-
ing which should be supported?

“(3) Should schooling be compulsory?
For whom and to what extent?”

Is this the basis for a serious discussion on
a new school act or is it not an extension of
the most right wing philosophy that wants
to see public schools left for the poor, the
disabled, the immigrant with little English,
and the establishment of a new elite system
‘of commerical and private schools gouging
more and more public tax dollars to cater to
the rich, the bright, the conformist. This is
what is happening in the U.S. and the pres-

~ sure is on in Canada for the same regressive

changes. The “new reality” would have us
believe that a permanent 10 per cent of the
population will always be unemployed —

so why waste money giving everyone a good
education?

During the last few years the Communist
Party has warned of the political attack on
public education and has called for an
organized, massive, fightback for the
defence of quality, public education

The working class Had to fight for years
to win free universal public education and-
today the working class must organize and
fight to retain it. Public protest meetings,
letters to MLA’s, packed school board
meetings to urge trustees to fight back, mass
rallies with the local MLA in attendance,
letters to the editors of daily and weekly
newspaper are all actions that have been
taken. When the legislature once again
meets there could also be a demonstration
in Victoria organized by a province-wide
coalition.

Betty Griffin is chair of the public educa-
tion committee of the Communist Party.

Friends through-
‘out the progres-
‘sive movement
were shocked and
deeply saddened
this week to learn
that Donald —
known _ univer-
sally as “Dusty”
— Greenwell died
suddenly on Sun-
day,. Dec. 16, . DUSTY

stricken while he GREENWELL
was with several community workers
touring Vancouver East.

The news came as the Tribune was
going to press. Apparently, he had been
with community workers, including
Vancouver ‘East NDP MP Margaret
Mitchell, touring the Grandview area for
a Canada Works project. Following the
tour they stopped at a restaurant for
supper and as they sat down, Dusty col-
lapsed and died.

He had undergone heart bypass
surgery two years ago.

Dusty Greenwell dies
suddenly December 16

A man familiar to hundreds of people
in the labor and progressive movement,
Dusty began his working life as a
Nanaimo coal miner and sat as a
member of the B.C. Federation of Labor
executive council from the United Mine
Workers before the last of the Nanaimo
mines closed in the 1950s. In Vancouver,
he was a well-known civic activist, a
founding member of the Committee of
Progressive Electors and a COPE parks
board candidate. He was frequently rec-
ognized for his community work in Van-
couver East.

He was also a member of the Com-
munist Party throughout his life and a
long-time member of its provincial exec-
utive.

- The Tribune will carry a full tribute in
the Jan. 7, 1985 issue. :

A memorial service has been set for
Sunday, Dec. 23 at 2 p.m. in the Hastings
Community Centre, 3096 E. Hastings. In
lieu of flowers, the family has asked that
donations be made to the COPE byelec-
tion fund.

‘Local 1004

SEASON’S. |
GREETINGS —
Peace, Unity‘and Jobs in ’85

from the officers and members

Canadian Union of Public Employees

PACIFIC TRIBUNE, DECEMBER 19, 1984 e 3