Dear Editor,
Enough! I am so frustrated by public anti-teachers opinion! Most of the public supports teachers and their fight for public education because they, as well as teachers, believe in it.
Teachers are fighting to prevent the disintegration of the public education system.
For far too long, teachers have compensated for lack of resources and lack of in class support to meet the needs of the students they teach. Teachers pay out of pocket to subsidize their classrooms: buy items for the students to decorate for Mothers Day and Fathers Day gifts, educational materials that aren’t covered by school funds and so on.
As for Mr. Weitzel [Other professionals sacrifice, too, June 24 Letters, Langley Advance], a taxpayer is a taxpayer. Is he inferring that, just because there are only 40,000 teacher taxpayers, they have less rights to say where their money is spent than the rest of the taxpayers?
Why is no one outraged at the fact that their tax dollars are being spent on legal and court fees incurred by Christy Clark’s Liberal government to once again (in courts for a third time) appeal an issue that the B.C. courts have already ruled in favour of teachers?
An issue regarding class size (number of students per class) and composition (number of special needs and learning disabilities per class-language that was contravened by the BC Liberals from the teachers’ collective agreement. What a waste of taxpayer money!
Teachers are paid for only 10 months a year, so the two months of summer are taken unpaid, unlike most of the population that works 12 months/year and have their vacations paid for.
As for the generous benefits and pensions, teachers pay for that, too. In fact, teachers pay handsomely (a lot) for their benefits and pension.
Natasha Viens, Langley