Peter Meiszner, Global News

The BCTF says B.C. students are falling behind and tax increases should be considered in order to increase education funding.

BCTF President Susan Lambert says B.C. has the worst ratio of students to educators in Canada, at 16.6 students per educator. The Canadian average is 14, and has been decreasing year over year.

“I cannot understand why a government would be so irresponsible to shortchange an entire generation of what they need to be successful members of society,” says Lambert.

Lambert is calling on the provincial government to bring education funding up to the national average.

“We know these changes will take time, and require significant re-investment.”

According to the BCTF, to bring B.C.’s student-educator ratio up to the national average, 5,800 more teachers would need to be hired at a cost of $500 million.

Lambert says tax increases would be necessary to increase education funding, something she says British Columbians understand….

“It’s another set of demands on already overburdened teachers,” says Lambert. “Each one of these is critical and important, but every increase in demand means that something else is being missed, when there is no increase in resources.”