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Liberal education “facts” need clarification

The “facts” on student achievements reflects only a small number of students who took the tests.
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Liberal education “facts” need clarification

In reference to the article on Cowichan’s provincial candidates comments on education, I’d like to clear up some “facts” attributed to the BC Liberal candidate.

B.C. may have increased its education budget by 40 per cent since 2000-2001, however the increase just kept pace with inflation with no extra funds for other education needs, something the BCTF has been fighting the government over for 16 years! Assessments for students who require assistance is sometimes a year or two away leaving the student in limbo and getting further behind. The abuses of this government, to plot to force teachers to strike, to deliberately scuttle negotiated working conditions and to waste valuable tax dollars on lawyers for 16 years is well documented and conveniently avoided by the BC Liberal candidate.

The “facts” on student achievements reflects only a small number of students who took the tests. Some 20,000 students across Canada took these tests, which only accounts for a very small number of the total students in school in Canada, some five million!

The “facts” on class-size made by the same BC Liberal candidate takes into account both rural and urban school districts and does not reflect the real crisis in class size in urban and more densely population areas in the province. When you just take into account urban and semi rural school districts in Canada, B.C. lags behind in class sizes. In the Cowichan district I’m seeing more temporary classrooms erected on school grounds to take in the swelling school age population.

If candidates are just going to echo the talking points of their parties, the manufactured and disingenuous “facts”, then how will voters choose the candidate that best suits the needs of this riding?

Phil Le Good

Cobble Hill