Christy Clark claimed teachers are greedy and that BC cannot afford to pay more for public education. Liberal social media retainers continue echoing the claims. We know that labour relations in BC schools have long been contentious but that will only change when both sides decide to act with restraint and respect.
Describing teachers as avaricious was careless. It is scurrilous if untrue.
Because teacher pay scales are less than simple and depend on various factors, I decided to choose a single large category of educators and compare how that sample changed over time to the changes experienced by other elements in public service.
This demonstrates the pay rate has not kept up with inflation and teachers in this category need a 7% increase to return to the level of 15 years before.
But then, if times are tough and the province is suffering financially, maybe all public servants must sacrifice. Let’s examine if decision makers have made any sacrifices.
Hmmmm.
Categories: Education
in-sights.ca 
Keeo the truth coming. It will never appear this way on the MSM, really sad.
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yep, great posts Norm. Thank you! More value in your work, Ross and Yaila's than any of the 3 amigos.
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http://www.richmondreview.com/news/264491461.html
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Jon McComb of Corus' CKNW980 and Ian Jessop of Bell Media's CFAX1070 are exceptions that occur to me immediately. Neither is afraid to take on vested interests and they give voice to people you won't hear elsewhere. It's tough though because profitability drives commercial operations. The old days when walls existed between business and editorial departments are gone. Imagine how bad things would be if we didn't have social media. But, even in this volunteer segment, financial constraints exist.
Citizen journalists that I respect are motivated by wanting a better province for our famillies and fellow citizens. I suspect that's on the minds of our readers too. Let's hope that reward is coming.
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A clickable link:
Salaries reach new heights at city hall
No surprise that salaries have been rising rapidly in the executive offices of the province, provincial crown corporations and agencies and now, cities and municipalities.
When I saw David Hahn at BC Ferries and Doug Pearce at bcIMC soar well over a million (the get lavish pensions and other benefits too), it didn't take a much brain power to realize that those would be benchmarks for every other senior civil servant. Executive leapfrog began in ernest.
A dozen years ago, the most powerful civil servant in BC earned $167, 000. That''s equivalent today to $206,000. In 2002, only a handful of people earned above $150,000 ($185,000 in $2013). Now, a number of BC public servants earn above $1 million a year and a battalion of them are above $400,000.
So when local government hires managers, they look at other senior civil servants and voilà, the position that used to pay $110,000 is suddenly pegged at $260,000.
Those big dollar earners are out there in the BC government and everyone below them is moving toward their pay level. Christy Clark has the nerve to stare down anonymous school teachers but lacks willingness to say, “Let's spread this austerity around. I predict that, without action, there will be continued significant inflation on executive salaries.
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Bill Good's comments about the BCTF this morning, hit an ALL time low.
Norm I'd be really interested to hear your comments about his conversation with a teacher c 9:25, who said most teachers are not political. Wow.
His emotional investment for a member of the “independent” press is breathtaking.
July Morning
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Anon-Above–
Thanks for including me among such august company. However, Norm and Laila are the real reporters of the local bloggodome who do the digging to find the real stories that matter.
Me, I'm just a tin-plated, two bit wordsmith who likes to try and extract scrap metal from the rusting hulls of our local proMedia behemoths.
Or some such thing.
.
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When the mainstream media stops hiding behind gag orders, regurgitated press releases, and photo-ops and instead joins with the taxpayer, the government will either wake up or it will have a revolt on its pudgy, bloated hands.
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