Editor, The News:
Re: Teachers start rotating strikes (The News, May 21).
It’s time for British Columbians to get off their couches and stand up to protest what is happening to our public education system.
The constant eroding of monies to the public school boards is disgusting and is putting the education system on the verge of collapse.
I am not a teacher, but a parent, and I’ve seen the problems cuts have made for the students at my child’s school. They can’t handle any more. There is no more fat to trim.
Our kids need a clean, safe, enriching environment in which to learn. But with constant funding cuts year after year, it is getting harder and harder to achieve.
For some kids, school is the only clean, safe, enriching environment they have.
The government talks about an educated and technical work force needed to meet the needs of the LNG projects in the next eight to 12 years. Our kids today will be those workers.
Yet the government, in making deep cuts year after year, is abandoning our students and creating a lost generation.
Think of education as a capital project, like roads. You borrow and invest money to get the best possible results for years to come. It’s the same with providing a good education for a student, because it pays dividends in the end.
I believe that we need to quit making education a political football and make it an apolitical enterprise. Its time for all parents, grandparents and citizens to tell the government: no more cuts. If you won’t stand up for your kids, who will stand up for them?
John Morgan
Maple Ridge