Read Janet Steffenhagen’s comments on the Ministry of Education’s re-assessment of grades K-12 education. 

Full article here.

Vancouver Sun article by Janet Steffenhagen, August 21, 2012. 11:11 am • Section: Report Card

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Read the latest news on B.C. teachers’ negotiations and rallies in The Vancouver Sun’s Education News: The Report Card.

Full article here.

by Janet Steffenhagen, June 20, 2012. 12:44 pm • Section: Report Card

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

Read the latest news on year-round education in British Columbia from The Tyee here. First in a three part series.

By Aleksandra Sagan, 2 May 2012, TheTyee.ca

© The Tyee

See the latest news on education reform, the revision of the school calendar, The School Act, and the response from the BCTF from the Tyee Newspaper The Hook Blog.

Complete The Hook blog article here.

The Tyee Education News here.

© The Tyee News

Read a North Vancouver teacher’s proposal for quality B.C. education and his opinion on the BCTF‘s action plan:

Full article from the Vancouver Sun’s Education Blog, The Report Card here.

Vancouver Sun article by Janet Steffenhagen: April 15, 2012. 3:32 pm • Section: Report Card, STAFF

© The Vancouver Sun

Is Our Education System Headed for Success or Failure?

Review the Vancouver Sun’s Education Blog The Report Card for today’s forum of the future of education in British Columbia.

The forum is free: register here.

Guest speakers: 

• Charles Ungerleider, former Deputy Education Minister and University of B.C. education professor
• Paul Shaker, former Education Dean and Professor Emeritus at Simon Fraser University

Read the latest education news and opinions from the Vancouver Sun Education blog, The Report Card, by Janet Steffenhagen here.

Here is an opinion from the one of the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association Trustee Directors on Bill 22 and its effect on BC education here.

© The Vancouver Sun

The Vancouver School Board is has an article on the public opinion’s effect on the future of public education in Vancouver.  Find out more here.

Vancouver School Board Sectoral Review: Our Schools, Our Programs, Our Future pdf here.

Post-secondary institutions have sent a stern letter to the B.C. government in response to the recent provincial budget, which ordered them to trim administrative spending by $70 million in 2013-14 and 2014-15.

“It is critical for government to understand that the $70 million reduction to institutional grants over the last two years of the fiscal plan, combined with five years of unfunded inflationary pressures, creates a strain on the operations of post-secondary institutions,” the presidents of 25 schools write in a letter to Advanced Education Minister Naomi Yamamoto.

“It is particularly concerning that in Budget 2012, the post-secondary sector is the only social sector to receive an absolute budget reduction, with the inference that other sectors, such as health, have taken action where we have not.

“We must be clear that it is unrealistic to assume that the reductions contemplated by Budget 2012 can be achieved without implications for service levels.”

The letter was described as unprecedented in an NDP release in mid-March (which would have been reported here earlier had it not been landed on the eve of the BCTF AGM). Find the letter here.

“We have a shared commitment to a strong post-secondary education systen and we do not want to see a decline in a system that is seen as one of the best in the world,” says the letter, whose signatories include Stephen Toope of UBC, Andrew Petter of SFU and David Turpin of the University of Victoria.

Read The Vancouver Sun full article here.

By JANET STEFFENHAGEN   March 26, 2012. 11:58 am • Section: Report Card

© The Vancouver Sun

Years of failed negotiations offer government solutions, say former union leaders.

If you need proof that history repeats itself, look no further than the contract negotiations between the provincial government and the B.C. Teachers’ Federation.

Since the New Democratic Party government pushed bargaining from the local to provincial level in 1995, there’s only been one successfully negotiated teacher collective agreement.

During that period legislation has been passed, teachers have walked out, fines have been issued, and classes have been cancelled, and when negotiation time rolls around again both sides profess a desire for change, but change doesn’t happen.

The current case is Bill 22: the Education Improvement Act, which introduces a mediator to the equation, but rules any decision must meet the government’s net-zero mandate, which teachers refuse to accept.

Read The Tyee full article here.

By Katie Hyslop, 26March2012, TheTyee.ca