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BC Liberal Education Plan to Strengthen Funding, Fitness, Accountability

April 25, 2005 

VANCOUVER – As part of its platform released today, a BC Liberal Government will implement comprehensive measures to further strengthen funding, physical fitness and accountability in public schools, said Premier Gordon Campbell.

“We’ve made real progress over the past four years in improving literacy and learning in B.C.,” Campbell said. “Education funding is at a record high, despite 30,000 fewer students, and additional funding has been invested to improve schools, textbooks, community libraries and literacy programs. We’ve also launched a $1.5 billion plan to complete all seismic upgrading in B.C.’s schools.”

“One of our goals is to make B.C. the best educated, most literate jurisdiction on the continent. The commitments we’re making to further strengthen education funding, physical fitness and accountability will build on the progress made and ensure an even better future for students.”

Commitments to continue funding improvements include:

  • Increase funding for K-12 education by $253 million over the next three years.
  • Complete all required seismic (earthquake) upgrading in B.C.’s schools within 15 years.
  • Require school boards to annually track and report on their plans to eliminate and prevent textbook shortages, starting this year.

“We’ve already begun to eliminate textbook shortages in schools, with $150 million more this year for B.C.’s schools, and $10 million in one-time funding in 2004 for schools to buy over 285,000 textbooks,” Campbell said. “The annual reporting on textbooks will be an important new means of enhancing accountability for both the government and school districts, to ensure student needs are met.”

Commitments to strengthen current requirements for physical fitness and healthy living include:

  • Expand the school Fruit and Vegetable Program to provide a free serving of B.C.-grown fruit or vegetables to all students in public schools across B.C., by 2010.
  • Eliminate junk food in all public schools within the next four years.
  • Institute “zero tolerance” of bullying in B.C.’s schools.
  • Expand the Action Schools! BC program to Grades K-9 in every school by 2010 and develop a suitable model for Grades 10-12.
  • Make physical fitness truly mandatory in the school curriculum for students in Grades K-9.

At present, the physical education curriculum for Grades K-10 states only that schools are “expected” to allocate 10% of instructional time to the subject. The time allotted varies widely between schools, and there is no means of ensuring all students are receiving their expected physical education time. As part of the current review of the physical education curriculum, announced in November 2004, a BC Liberal Government will strengthen the current requirements for Grades K-9, including ensuring a greater focus on fitness and healthy living. (Grade 10 physical education has already been made mandatory, as a new requirement under the province’s Graduation Program implemented last year).

The expanded Fruit and Vegetable program will be based on research that is being conducted as part of a pilot study announced in March for 10 elementary schools. The study, being administered by the BC Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation, will be used to develop options for cost-effectively expanding the program province-wide.

Commitments to enhance accountability for both the government and teachers include:

  • Establish a teacher employment registry, administered by the College of Teachers, to publicly report the names of teachers disciplined for misconduct involving emotional, physical or sexual abuse.
  • Require annual public reports for all public schools on the statistics relating to class sizes, teacher hirings, terminations, disciplinary actions and professional development.
  • Give government the ability to directly communicate with all teachers in B.C.
  • Hold an annual Teachers’ Congress to invite teachers from across B.C. to directly communicate with the Premier and education ministers on their ideas for bringing out the best in education.
  • Legislate a ban on inappropriate partisan political activities in our schools.
  • Give teachers new recognition and financial incentives to reward improvements in student achievement and promote professional development.

The province has already begun consulting with parents, principals, trustees, teachers and superintendents on ways to strengthen requirements for reporting of incidents involving teacher discipline and professional misconduct. The College of Teachers has been involved in this process. The new registry will build on those consultations, to protect student safety in schools.

“We believe students and their parents have a right to freedom from inappropriate partisan political activities in the classroom,” Campbell said. “To enhance accountability for government, school boards and teachers alike, we also need improved reporting so that parents have the facts about what’s happening in their children’s schools. The Teachers’ Congress, and giving the government the ability to directly communicate with all teachers in B.C., will improve two-way communication between teachers and government on what’s happening in the classroom and on government initiatives affecting schools. As well, we want to find ways to recognize the tremendous contributions that teachers make, reward improvements in student achievement and promote professional development. We’re going to ask the annual Teachers’ Congress to look at ways to do that.”

A BC Liberal Government will also:

  • Oppose the NDP’s plan to eliminate education as an essential service, which would allow strikes and lockouts to shut B.C. children out of class and deny them their right to an education during labour disputes.
  • Oppose the NDP’s proposal to remove class size limits and protections under the law which would return to the old model where they were used as political bargaining chips in labour negotiations.
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Authorized By Jim Pipe, Financial Agent BC Liberal Party.
Tel: 604.606.6000, 1.800.567.2257