Persistent education challenges magnified by pandemic

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 02/09/2020 (1643 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

HOW much is a child worth?

Any parent would respond that it’s an absurd question. As a parent myself, my sons are worth everything to me and I would sacrifice absolutely anything for them.

Ask a teacher that same question, and they will likewise tell you kids are priceless. As a teacher for almost 20 years, I can tell you with great certainty that my colleagues would say students are our raison d’être. We are often guilty of misnaming our students by calling them “our kids.” We take that whole “in loco parentis” thing straight to heart.

Despite the love and high value we profess to place on children as a society, our actions for many decades have been dissonant in this regard. While most students in Manitoba are educated through the public system, the issues it has faced have seemingly been off the radar when it counts. In the last provincial election, all eyes were focused on health care, and political parties paid little or no attention to education.

We now face the stark reality of having to quickly address the challenges of having underfunded and undervalued public education for years. Concerns such as a lack of equity, child poverty, delayed infrastructure investments, large classes filled with diverse needs, inadequate mental-health supports and issues with access to technology and connectivity have plagued the public education system for decades.

Many governments of different political stripes have come and gone. Some have addressed certain issues better than others, but no government has ever fully addressed them all. And so, these challenges have persisted and, in many cases, have gotten worse over time.

I have seen how this impacts not only children in schools but also the teachers. Their sacrifices to meet the needs of the kids have come at physical, mental and financial costs to them personally.

And now we have COVID-19.

Dr. Brent Roussin, Manitoba’s chief provincial public health officer, has repeated that Manitobans should avoid spending prolonged periods of time in crowded places.

This does not assuage the real fears and concerns of teachers, students and parents who know what the inside of Manitoba’s schools and classrooms look like. As we prepare to return to school this fall, school divisions have been tasked with the lion’s share of the responsibility to ensure the safe return of students and staff.

This is no easy feat. Having faced years of funding increases below the rate of inflation by the current government, many were forced to make difficult financial decisions before COVID-19 hit. And after being told to squirrel away savings in the spring to help address issues to come this fall, school divisions are asked to use the peanuts in their pockets to address a slew of issues requiring major dollars to fix.

The province has committed $52 million to spend on COVID-related needs in schools. The federal government, in turn, will add about $85 million for Manitoba education.

Yet questions remain.

When pressed by reporters as to whether this government was willing to commit money to operationalize the divisions’ various return-to-school plans, Education Minister Kelvin Goertzen responded that the province will have to see what the asks are. As well, when the federal funding was announced, the premier was unclear on how that money would be used.

For students and staff who return to schools, many of them next week, these responses may be too little, too late.

Teachers have always expressed the importance of having manageable class sizes to facilitate meeting the educational needs of their students. The pandemic has placed additional importance on this matter, as class size has now become a health and safety issue for students and staff.

Will the funds be used to ensure limited class sizes? Who knows?

When discussing government with my students, I have always reminded them of the importance of taking part in the political process. Voting is key, I tell them — and they are quick to remind me that they cannot yet vote. I then go on to tell them that using their voice is equally important. Write your MLA, voice your concerns through the many platforms at your disposal; make yourself heard. It is we the people who hold the power, not the elected officials who are there to represent us, their constituents.

The list of concerns expressed by the Manitoba Teachers’ Society, parents and students is strikingly similar. I am certain addressing many of these concerns will be among the list of asks from the school divisions. Without a commitment from the province to invest the necessary funding where it will have the most impact, school divisions will have their hands tied as to what they can do to make our schools the safest they can be this fall.

So I return to the initial question:

How much is a child worth?

Marcela Cabezas is president of the Louis Riel Teachers’ Association