Who's The Bigger Douches? BC Liberals or BC Teachers? (w/ pics)

First, for all the fans of Ogie not living in BC, Canada - this is pretty geographically and politically specific. Read as either entertainment or foreshadowing.

Now usually, I reserve my rants on ogieoglethorpe to recreational activities such as hockey, pop culture, maybe how much of an ass my buddy Johnny is. But as deemed necessary by the midgets pounding on the inside of my head I need to vent once in awhile about bigger matters. I have to get this out there, just for the sake of my own sanity.

For parents in BC with kids in school, the question is out there right now; who is a bigger douche? Your local neighbourhood teacher or Christy Clark, leader of the BC Liberal party, notorious union breaker, Enbridge supporter (it's coming) and occasional Canucks fan (when they were winning). She's so popular she had to move out of Point Gray/Vancouver so she could still remain Premier.

She does have a nice smile though...

Now most of BC has already picketed which side of the line they are already on. But not Ogie. I need quasi-facts, just not opinionated opinions. I need to know... Who is the Bigger Douchebag?

Dodgeball? You don't need no stinkin' Dodgeball. It's not in the Budget!

Issue - The Teachers make too much money;

• Your local MLA makes basic compensation of $101,859 as of 2009. If your MLA holds a parliamentary position or office, they receive bonus compensation of anywhere from 90% (premier) to deputy chair of a committee (10%).

• An employee of the govt/executive of the BC Education system's pay... aka the superintendent of the district;

Large;  Vancouver District #39   $241,724
Medium Prince George #57        $186 094
Small market Kootenays #19      $127,347

• What Teachers make and for the ease of comparison we will use the same districts. There are 2 numbers, the most a 1st year teacher can make and the maximum a teacher with 10+ years of experience can make. I won't pretend to wonder why a teacher in Vancouver makes less than a teacher in a small school in the Rockies, but there you go... Keep in mind that most all of the money a teacher makes stays in BC. There aren't that many tropical second homes on your teachers financial portfolio.

Large;  Vancouver District #39 - Beginning   $45 043     Max $70,383
Medium Prince George #57        Beginning   $44 843     Max $70,299
Small market Kootenays #19      Beginning   $46 917     Max $70 397

Douche Winner; Your local MLA and superintendent

there's only so much money to go around and I'm keeping it

Issue; Pensions

Pensions. We all need them. Yet, most of us won't have enough to ever retire. There's not even a guarantee that there will be any money in our pension funds when we retire as so many embezzled or bankrupt corporate employees have found out (hello Enron and Nortel pensioners). But who has it better?

• A MLA must serve 6 years in Parliament to qualify for a full pension at age 65, here are some numbers of recent 'pensioned' MLAs. 
• In addition to the generous pension plan, which is indexed to inflation, B.C. MLAs also receive 15-months severance pay whether they quit or are defeated in an election. 
• In 1996 the NDP introduced at 1 t0 1 ratio of taxpayers matching an MLA's contribution. In 2007, the Liberals reversed that back to pre NDP legislation at which time BC taxpayers were putting in $4 to every $1 an MLA contributed to their pension. 

• The average Teachers’ pension granted in 2009 was based on a pensionable service length of 25 years, paying an average of $2891.67/month before taxes. 
• The average age of retirement in the TPP in 2009 was 58 years. 

So on one hand, after 25 years of being a teacher you can expect a retirement income of just about 36,000 a year. Not bad. On the other hand, if you are an MLA who can survive one re-election, you can retire after 6 years with a guaranteed pension anywhere north of $28,000. In addition, you can also get 15 months severance pay for being FIRED by your constituents. 

and be arrested for Drunk Driving, remember that fun?

Douche Winner; Your soon to be retiring local MLA



Issue - Holidays! Or I Wish I had All That Time Off!

• The Teachers get summers off, 2 week holidays at Christmas, Spring Break Etc meaning we have to find child care for those days when we are still at work.

Last year teachers received a total of (from Vancouver School calendar) 72 days off. Of those, 12 are stat holidays, so in theory they are nullified. So 60 days off a year.

• Your MLA is supposed to be in Victoria for 70 days of the year to sit in Legislature; that room where everyone is supposed to debate what is the best for the future of the province. In the last 2 years, the Liberals have opened the door to the Parliament at total of 36 out of 579 days. 
• What they do the other 285 days of the year is of their own accord; attending meetings, attending lunches, attending lunch meetings, going to openings about lunch meetings, wearing a tie... 
• Not one of those hours in those days is spent teaching young children how to become caring, educated citizens of society. 
• For the record, your MLA's calendar; technically, their Summer break begins May 30 and goes to October 5th. All holidays off, of course and 4 day work weeks, beginning at 10am.

Douche Winner, Your local MIA MLA

I'll see you all at the beach! In Hawaii of course.

Issue - the Teachers say class sizes are too large  

• I doubt you will find any parent that hasn't dropped their child off at a birthday party of 20 screaming 7 year olds and thought as they quickly drove away 'thank god I don't have to deal with that for the next three hours'. Now imagine you are that parent hosting that party, only instead of 3 hours, it goes for 6 hours, 5 days a week for the next 10 months.  

I just bought this jacket brand new in 1984. Why you ask?

• Your local MLA is the type of parent that probably hears about said birthday party and seeing as how they are babysitting their nephews and nieces, figures that 1 or 2 more kids won't be noticeable to the party host. Which is true. But next thing you know, there's 10 extra kids there and there is only enough school books for 20. 

• While the government will point out studies say a class of 20 kids or 30 kids doesn't make much difference academically, i'm saying it makes a hell of a difference to the teacher's sanity and therefore my own kids' education. I'm going MLA on this one. 

Douche Winner; Your local MLA



The Issue -  Disadvantaged and Special Needs Children

• The Teachers Don't Want Special Needs Children in the Classroom

They do, they just want these children with special needs and learning disadvantages to have qualified one on one care and perhaps a place where they will cause as minimal disruption as possible. They are tired of inheriting kids that are continually being moved along, despite not having the required basic fundamentals to be in the grade they should be in. These are the children that will 'graduate' with little skills and have the highest percentage of either being on Welfare or on drugs after they are pushed out of the classroom and into the streets.

• The Govt Wants Special Needs and Needs the Disadvantaged in the Classroom

They are acknowledging the basic Canadian right for every child to experience an education. There were no statistics available on how many kids with special needs attend private schools in BC. I'm assuming due to the high cost of raising a special needs child or housing one in juvenile detention center is sufficiently more cost-effective than subsidizing them to attend those special 'private schools' that are going to start popping up.

Not retarded, just a big douche.

Frankly, I don't want my kid sitting beside that unfortunate kid who moans and moves about. It's a zoo vs Nature argument and I understand how insensitive I'm being but this is my kid's education I'm thinking about. I want them focused on what they are to be learning, not 'what is that smell/sound coming from X's chair?' or the thought of my kids growing up socializing with someone who is inevitably going to fall through the cracks is also disturbing.

To me, a nice compromise would be to incorporate the non-disadvantage kids into special needs classrooms for a couple hours a week under a 'social understanding and empathy' curriculum. Something that forces kids to be one-on-one with special needs instead of being one of 25 kids that mostly try to ignore their presence anyways, just like we do to handicapped adults we see at the mall.

Here's a school for disabled children; notice all the specialized attention and services they receive...(start at 3.10). Why isn't there more support for something like that? Oh, because it's in FUCKING SOUTH AFRICA!!!

And for those dis-advantaged kids? The ones that go home to poverty, abuse and no future? There's no hope for them. We have been ensuring that for years. At least we can always build more jails.

Douche Winner; Ogie

sorry, mom...

Issue - the teachers waited until the end of the school year to strike. 

• Oh boy... major douche alert. But by who? Due to slow progress at the bargaining table, foreshadowing of rotating strikes, the end of the school year is now upon us parents. A lot of Grade 12's future is in the balance as without Provincial exams, their entrance marks to post-secondary schools are in jeopardy or at the least, going to be postponed. Thanks teachers, some Grade 12's will no longer have the joys of being placed on stage to be admired by parents and support staff for 3 hours as politicians and principals talk of what an amazing world lays open before them. Instead, they are treated to the harsh reality so many parents and BC'rs face daily, the little people just don't matter (enough).

• Your Local MLA knew this was going to happen. It was a win-win for them. Either the teachers strike at which time public opinion may turn against them. Or they didn't strike, everyone breaks for the summer and the teachers return to work in September no better than they were last September or any year since 2001. Meanwhile, union bank accounts continue to bleed dry fighting the government in court, who are using taxpayer money to fund their appeals. 
• And those MLAs that are parents don't need to be concerned about arranging day care as they've been on 'summer holidays' since May 30th and their kids post-secondary school is already picked out. 

Douche Winner; Tie, you both suck.


In summary;

It's pretty evident that most of the blame falls on our government. The juxtaposition of what they are making, the hours they are putting in and the direction they are steering the future of BC is clearly towards a growing gap between the haves and the have-nots. Would I ever encourage my child to get into social work of any kind? Not a chance. Society doesn't reward those that care, in fact it does the exact opposite.

Ogie believes that this is all signs of a much larger struggle, not just our kids' education but of BC's future social structure and which way are we going to allow the pendulum to swing. Are we going to stick to our Canadian roots and advocate for social equality or allow our best interests be swayed by media manipulation and foreign interests? The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein is an amazing read if you are interested in the never discussed economic policies of modern day governments. The Chicago School of Economics is deeply disturbing yet extremely popular to those in power and has been for the last 50 years.

This needs to be discussed more than it is. Countries that invest in themselves (nationalism) inherently do better than countries that open their borders to free enterprise (capitalism). We don't hear about them because it doesn't help those in power (rich foreign interests). Why doesn't BC control it's national resources? Why doesn't Canada control it's own borders and resources instead of selling them off to foreign countries?
A house that can support itself is the envy of those around it that are crumbling. We need to press for a return to being proud to be Canadian and the differences between us and America or we may as well just add some stars to our flag now and welcome the inevitable decline into poverty and/or winner-take-all mentality of a NRA-inflicted slow patriotic suicide.

There are lots of foreign-owned (read American) private schools that are watching these events anxiously and rubbing their hands in anticipation of the future tuition fees they will charge to parents exasperated with the public education in this province. And that is what I think they want. Free enterprise will not 'free' us from debt; it has done the exact opposite. It's a sad state when the future of our society is being defended by those who educate that same future while other BC unions stand idly behind them, wishing them all the best but not standing up as well, to say that the Teachers are right. Our kids deserve better.

And oh yeah, private Schools are bad too....