The teachers here in British Columbia are paid twice as much as in the U.S., both in starting salaries and average salaries. They have been on "administrative strike" since September, which means they are not issuing report cards, supervising students outside, communicating with parents, holding parent-teacher meetings, taking field trips, or talking with administrators.
Starting Monday, they are going on a 3-day full walk-out strike. After that, they plan on striking one day a week. They are doing this "for the students." They want a 15% pay increase even though the government, which is in bad shape financially, had already put a freeze on all public-sector raises. Teachers here have very sweet pensions, in addition to large salaries for working 9 months out of the year (2 months off in summer, plus two 2-week breaks at Christmas and spring break), plus generous sick leave and vacation time.
Also, after you have taught here for 5 years, you are locked in and cannot be fired. Our experience has been that many teachers start coasting at this time, still drawing a fat paycheck. Our daughter's Grade 4 teacher taught for the first 6 weeks then took "mental health" time for the rest of the year! She did the exact same thing to her class the very next year, too, but she only lasted for 3 weeks the second time!
Parents are scrambling to find care for their kids for next week... and beyond. Last time the teachers here held a strike, it lasted for over two weeks, and many parents had to use their sick leave and vacation time, those that could dragged their kids to work with them all day.
Enrollment for high schools is going on right now; you have to fill out an application package if you need to go out of your catchment. We are trying to get our daughter's grades so we can complete the enrollment application so she can go to high school! We have no idea what happens if we don't get her grades and she can't get into a high school for September!
What a disaster!
Starting Monday, they are going on a 3-day full walk-out strike. After that, they plan on striking one day a week. They are doing this "for the students." They want a 15% pay increase even though the government, which is in bad shape financially, had already put a freeze on all public-sector raises. Teachers here have very sweet pensions, in addition to large salaries for working 9 months out of the year (2 months off in summer, plus two 2-week breaks at Christmas and spring break), plus generous sick leave and vacation time.
Also, after you have taught here for 5 years, you are locked in and cannot be fired. Our experience has been that many teachers start coasting at this time, still drawing a fat paycheck. Our daughter's Grade 4 teacher taught for the first 6 weeks then took "mental health" time for the rest of the year! She did the exact same thing to her class the very next year, too, but she only lasted for 3 weeks the second time!
Parents are scrambling to find care for their kids for next week... and beyond. Last time the teachers here held a strike, it lasted for over two weeks, and many parents had to use their sick leave and vacation time, those that could dragged their kids to work with them all day.
Enrollment for high schools is going on right now; you have to fill out an application package if you need to go out of your catchment. We are trying to get our daughter's grades so we can complete the enrollment application so she can go to high school! We have no idea what happens if we don't get her grades and she can't get into a high school for September!
What a disaster!