Honourable Christy Clark:

I support B.C. teachers. I believe they have a right to negotiate the terms and conditions of their employment. This talk of locking out teachers is ridiculous. Teachers have chosen job action that has relatively little effect on families and continue to teach our children. With talk of locking out teachers the government threatens to stop teaching our children and disrupt families.

Further, children are the future of our society and should be one of our first priorities – this means proper funding for their education.

As my son entered kindergarten last year I was shocked and appalled that the principal needed to ask the Parent Advisory Committee to purchase chairs for the school.

Schools should be able to purchase items such as chairs and books out of the school operating funds, yet we have to fundraise for such items. As fundraising is needed to make up the slack in funding, it sets up a dynamic of haves and have nots: public schools in less affluent areas have a much harder time fundraising and end up with a much smaller budget than public schools in more affluent areas.

Premier Clark, you have promised to put families first. Supporting teachers and properly funding our school system should be a prime part of your plan to put families first.

I urge you to support families by supporting teachers and providing appropriate funding to schools.

Conan Webb

Esquimalt