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Sunday, February 13, 2011
OPINION
We would like to welcome
ELLA LAUGHREN
to Details Details previously from Ellas Blinds. She welcomes all new friends and colleagues to call her at 765-4045
▼ PROVINCE
B.C. goes backwards on education
G
uess who recently said this: “We want to reward good teachers and stop making excuses for bad ones.” No, it wasn’t B.C. Liberal leadership hopeful Kevin Falcon, who has gone quiet on education since he caused a stir with his proposal for merit pay for public school teachers. And it wasn’t the Fraser Institute, which just released its latest rankings based on foundation skills assessment (FSA) tests in B.C. schools. It was U.S. President Barack Obama, in his state of the union address. He was talking about Race to the Top, a federal bonus program he called “the most meaningful reform of our public schools in a generation.” “To all 50 states, we said, ‘If you show us the most innovative plans to improve teacher quality and student achievement, we’ll show you the
VICTORIA VIEWS
Tom Fletcher money.’” B.C., meanwhile, is going backwards. After years of B.C. Teachers’ Federation sabotage of skills testing, the essential mechanism for any improvement in education techniques, the B.C. Principals’ and Vice-Principals’ Association abruptly surrendered a couple of weeks ago. The tests aren’t flawed, association president Jameel Aziz admitted, but they have been “successfully undermined” by the BCTF. Aziz listed three reasons for abandoning FSA tests. Two of them are factually wrong. He claimed that after years of BCTF disruption
tactics, participation has fallen below 50 per cent in some districts. Ministry records show the lowest participation was 62 per cent, last year in the Vancouver school district. The provincial average was 83 per cent, despite letters sent home by teacher union locals telling parents the tests are bad and suggesting they find some excuse for their kids to skip them. Aziz also blamed the Fraser Institute for its “misuse” of FSA data that “does not reflect the many unique challenges faced by individual schools, nor does it credit the many unique successes of individual schools.” Wrong again, says Peter Cowley, the Fraser Institute’s director of school performance studies. He notes that the rankings track local factors such as parental income and the proportion of English as a second language or special needs. “We’re hunting for
schools that have shown that they are actually improving,” as well as those that are slipping, Cowley said. Critics like to set up a straw man by comparing schools in rich urban areas with poor, remote schools. That’s “misuse,” designed to discredit the rankings and the tests. Parents should start by looking at the performance of their own school over five years. Is it getting better or worse? Rural parents can look at similar regions of B.C. and see if comparable schools are doing better. All parents can ask what extra help their children are getting to improve their individual areas of weakness. Aziz claimed that “some in government” have suggested FSA tests be replaced. Well, rookie cabinet minister Moira Stilwell has. For a more informed view, here’s Education
Minister Margaret MacDiarmid in an open letter to parents: “The push by the BCTF to end the FSAs is political. It’s about hiding information you, as parents, have a right to know about your child’s education and future.” Leadership candidate George Abbott made vague noises about supplementing FSA tests. Here is one change he could consider. The tests measure reading, writing and arithmetic skills at Grades 4 and 7. They track the individual student’s performance, as well as that of the team of teachers he or she has had to that point. Additional measurements could give a clearer picture of the performance of each teacher. Then Falcon’s merit pay idea could be implemented. Tom Fletcher is legislative reporter and columnist for Black Press. tfletcher@blackpress.ca
▼ LETTERS
Beach access land shouldn’t be sold To the editor Re: the Marina ParkWhitworth Road Beach Access Land Swap Proposal I live on Gellatly and have done so for many years. I have seen the opening of The Gellatly Nut Farm. The transformation of Marina Park into the delightful play area and beach safe space it is now. The building of The
Cove Resort and the walkway on the lake side of the resort. So many changes have taken place. Meeting and greeting walkers, enjoying the flat lakefront delights me. It’s so great that people can walk their dogs all along the road from Boucherie to Gellatly, in front of The Cove, through the Nut Farm to Whitworth and eventually to Pebble Beach.
I have also seen the congestion of parking in the summer with trucks and trailers and cars all vying for the limited space along the roadside. The mix of cars, boats, animals and children amidst such dense traffic scares me. There is another proposed development due for Gellatly Road. Almost opposite Marina Park there are plans
▼ OKANAGAN LAKE
City, CORD need to take action Moorage from A10 Association has commissioned a water quality test which clearly indicates the water quality in this area is already a hazard to people and animals, and the environmental impact of leaking fuel, oil and human waste from boats continues to negatively impact Okanagan Lake. Kelowna’s water intake is only about 1,500 metres to the north of this area and yet the city continues to procrastinate on
this issue. The City of Vancouver worked with Transport Canada to create boating restrictions regarding anchoring in False Creek. The province of Ontario has laws that govern the lake bed of waterways allowing them to restrict people from anchoring or mooring where ever they please. Solutions can be found if the will and priority to address the problem are there. While the regional
kelownacapnews.com
district’s watercraft committee is working on access to our lake, it would be wise and farseeing for the issue to be coupled with a desire to regulate the mooring of these boats. The time for action on this issue is long overdue. Leadership now can prevent an environmental disaster in the future. Heather Rice, president North End Residents Association
capital news A11
to construct a Valet Boat Storage business. When this happens, some parking spaces will be lost to allow an entrance for the business. The constant to and fro of vehicles hauling boats will make this area of Gellatly Road even busier. Why would enlarging Marina Park, that sits smack bang in the middle of all this vehicle activity, be a sensible idea? It is my belief that the lands that our municipality inherited from the ministry of highways and the regional district are lands that we are caretaking for the future generations. It is not our mandate to
sell them off for the benefit of those who can afford to buy them. It is our job to improve them and keep them safe so that our grandchildren and their children will always have free access to the beautiful lakefront. These beach access parks have only come into our possession with the creation of The District of West Kelowna. There has not yet been time to make improvements to them. We cannot claim the land back in the future. It will be lost forever. Yvonne Horrey, West Kelowna
Express yourself We welcome letters that comment in a timely manner about stories and editorials published in the Capital News. Letters under 200 words will be given priority in considering them for publication. We reserve the right to edit for clarity, brevity, legality and taste. Letters sent directly to reporters may be treated as letters to the editor. Letters must bear the name, address and telephone number of the writer. Names will be withheld at the editor’s discretion, only under exceptional circumstances. E-mail letters to edit@kelownacapnews.com, fax to 763-8469 or mail to The Editor, Capital News, 2495 Enterprise Way, Kelowna, B.C., V1X 7K2.
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