B.C. teachers still struggling with extra costs: Union president

It is the first day of the school year for most kids in B.C. but teachers have already been hard at work getting classrooms ready, and many are experiencing the same anxieties and excitement.

The teachers’ union has been warning about the growing number of job vacancies at schools across the province, but the head of the BC Teachers’ Federation says that’s not the only issue its members are facing.

“There are still the other common things teachers are struggling with,” said BCTF President Clint Johnston.

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“One is costs. We know that the system is overall underfunded, so there are teachers out there right now who are spending their own money to get supplies for their classroom to make sure it works and they can do the program they need to for their students to learn. That’s coming out of their own pockets and that’s not even touching on things like food.”

Johnston says during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, schools provided more food to students and he believes many teachers are stocking up on non-perishable foods this September.

“So when students come in hungry, teachers can help them out,” he told CityNews, adding that inflation is a “double-edged sword” for many teachers who are also parents.

“I have five children who have all gone through public education, so when I’m out spending my own money and then figuring out what to ask other parents for in tight times, I’m also thinking about what I’m going to have to pay for my students to have the supplies they need to learn.”

“None of us should be facing this, frankly. Not the parents or the educators.”

On the health and safety front, the BCTF’s position this school year sounds much different from last September when the union was calling for better vaccine education and upgraded ventilation in classrooms after the mask mandate for schools was lifted earlier in the year.

“The federation has had a position for quite a while that we are following,” Johnston said. “We advocated strongly at the beginning [of the COVID-19 pandemic] to get additional safety measures. I think we are at a place now where B.C. health officials have really handled the situation.

“It is a reality that everyone is living with that COVID is still out there, but I think right now our focus is probably more on the wildfires and the smoke and whether or not we have a system that can handle the ventilation needs for students in that situation.”

He believes the ventilation systems installed or upgraded in many B.C. schools for COVID-19 are adequate to handle both wildfire smoke and any surges in respiratory illnesses.

But despite all the concerns brought up by the BCTF, Johnston explains most teachers are eager to head back into the classroom.

“I hope parents do know that for a lot of our members, there’s still that excitement. There are all these issues that we talk about that are concerning and make for anxiety, but there’s also that excitement our members have of getting back to seeing students in front of them and teaching them. That’s what they love and that is still very much there.”