Education funding—“You’re always on my mind”

BCTF Research has recently prepared a number of short articles that are available online from the Bargaining Updates page, via Research Roundup, on the topic of education funding. Click on each title to read more of the following:

• K to 12 education funding is in comparative free fall 

...What about the government’s repeated claim of “highest funding ever” for public schools? While dollar amounts have gone up, they have not kept pace with the increases in inflation and the costs downloaded onto school districts....

• “Net zero” is less than zero  

...A zero increase would widen the already huge gap between the salaries of teachers in the rest of the Western provinces as well as Ontario. An Alberta teacher, for example, already makes about $20,000 a year more than a teacher with equivalent training and experience in BC—and has a lower cost of living....

• Wow—That’s a lot of money! 

The government asserts that it cannot afford a 1% salary increase for teachers, yet it could award every public sector employee a 3% raise for the estimated cost of the new retractable roof on BC Place (current “official” cost said to be around $563 million, which is 50% higher than the original budget; the actual cost may be higher still).

See http://www.bctf.ca/ResearchRoundup.aspx for other topics addressed in “Research Roundup”.

Submitted by Anne Field, afield@bctf.ca
BCTF Research
December 8, 2011

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