I have a new case study (full pdf; summary article from the publishers) out as part of the Economists for Equity and Environment‘s Future Economy Initiative. I look at the City of Vancouver’s Neighbourhood Energy Utility (NEU), a low-carbon district energy system that hits a sweet spot of clean energy, local control, and
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The Progressive Economics Forum: 3 worrisome facts about BC’s job market on the eve of Budget 2015
2015 marks the sixth year of BC’s recovery from the recession. But it’s been a slow and largely jobless recovery in BC. 1. BC needs 93,000 more jobs to return to our pre-recession employment rate (the proportion of working age British Columbians who have jobs). Only 71.2% of working age
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Confusing “Deficit Elimination” with “Prosperity”
The banner headline across the top of the front page of the national Globe and Mail edition caught my eye Saturday morning: “How B.C. became a ‘have’ province..” Wow, I thought to myself, that is quite something (and with not a single LNG plant on the economic horizon!), and so
Continue readingstaffroom confidential: Standardized testing: a pillar of privatization
It’s FSA season again. Every year in British Columbia, every student in grades 4 and 7 has their regular classroom schedule put on hold for two weeks while they complete the Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) — a collection of standardized tests mandated by the provincial government. Every student, parent, teacher
Continue readingstaffroom confidential: Standardized testing: a pillar of privatization
It’s FSA season again. Every year in British Columbia, every student in grades 4 and 7 has their regular classroom schedule put on hold for two weeks while they complete the Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) — a collection of standardized tests manda…
Continue readingstaffroom confidential: Standardized testing: a pillar of privatization
It’s FSA season again. Every year in British Columbia, every student in grades 4 and 7 has their regular classroom schedule put on hold for two weeks while they complete the Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) — a collection of standardized tests mandated by the provincial government. Every student, parent, teacher
Continue readingstaffroom confidential: Badass Book Review: The Future of our Schools, Teachers Unions and Social Justice by Lois Weiner
Badass Book Review: The Future of our Schools, Teachers Unions and Social Justice by Lois Weiner Since the massive public sector upsurge in the 60’s and 70’s, teachers unions in the US have been in a long steady decline in power. Only very recently, with the 2012 Chicago teachers strike, have
Continue readingstaffroom confidential: Badass Book Review: The Future of our Schools, Teachers Unions and Social Justice by Lois Weiner
Badass Book Review: The Future of our Schools, Teachers Unions and Social Justice by Lois WeinerSince the massive public sector upsurge in the 60’s and 70’s, teachers unions in the US have been in a long steady decline in power. Only very recently…
Continue readingstaffroom confidential: Badass Book Review: The Future of our Schools, Teachers Unions and Social Justice by Lois Weiner
Badass Book Review: The Future of our Schools, Teachers Unions and Social Justice by Lois Weiner Since the massive public sector upsurge in the 60’s and 70’s, teachers unions in the US have been in a long steady decline in power. Only very recently, with the 2012 Chicago teachers strike, have
Continue readingstaffroom confidential: Badass Book Review: Raising Expectations & Raising Hell, by Jane McAlevey
Book Review: Raising expectations (and Raising hell): My Decade Fighting for the Labor Movement, by Jane McAleveyIt’s been a tough couple of decades to be a trade unionist. Since the early nineties, with Paul Martin’s cuts to transfer payments, through…
Continue readingstaffroom confidential: Badass Book Review: Raising Expectations & Raising Hell, by Jane McAlevey
Book Review: Raising expectations (and Raising hell): My Decade Fighting for the Labor Movement, by Jane McAlevey It’s been a tough couple of decades to be a trade unionist. Since the early nineties, with Paul Martin’s cuts to transfer payments, through the Mike Harris’s assaults, to the BC Liberal’s ripping
Continue readingstaffroom confidential: Badass Book Review: Raising Expectations & Raising Hell, by Jane McAlevey
Book Review: Raising expectations (and Raising hell): My Decade Fighting for the Labor Movement, by Jane McAlevey It’s been a tough couple of decades to be a trade unionist. Since the early nineties, with Paul Martin’s cuts to transfer payments, through the Mike Harris’s assaults, to the BC Liberal’s ripping
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: ‘Tis the Season to Rethink Our Charitable Giving
This op-ed by yours truly was published in The Province. The examples are BC-specific, but the message is much broader: donating to charity is not enough, we also have to change the status quo that forces so many people to turn to charity in a rich country like Canada. —
Continue readingstaffroom confidential: BC’s Site C Dam – Another stack in the LNG house of cards
The BC government announced today that they were going ahead with an $8.8 billion commitment to build BC’s largest dam – “Site C”. A few (even on the left) believe we should support Site C, as a large, green public energy infrastructure project. It is important to understand that that
Continue readingstaffroom confidential: BC’s Site C Dam – Another stack in the LNG house of cards
The BC government announced today that they were going ahead with an $8.8 billion commitment to build BC’s largest dam – “Site C”. A few (even on the left) believe we should support Site C, as a large, green public energy infrastructure project. It is …
Continue readingstaffroom confidential: BC’s Site C Dam – Another stack in the LNG house of cards
The BC government announced today that they were going ahead with an $8.8 billion commitment to build BC’s largest dam – “Site C”. Critics of the project consist of most of the province that isn’t involved in the building and resource extraction industry. First nations oppose the project. Grand Chief
Continue readingstaffroom confidential: The Mind of Christy Clark
My colleagues and I were somewhat perplexed at the lunch table this week to grasp the motivation behind the latest decision of the BC Liberals to end funding for adult graduates to upgrade their high school courses. OK yes, it is obvious they want to fund less and charge more
Continue readingstaffroom confidential: The Mind of Christy Clark
OK yes, it is obvious they want to fund less and charge more fees. But how does this fit with the grander scheme of grooming BC’s youth towards a life of resource extraction? Surely getting those extra credits in Math and Science are part and parcel of the path to trades school and the LNG highway?
It is easy to forget about Christy’s earlier life as Minister of Education (yes, those are dark days we educators try to block from memory). But her failed attempt to overhaul the graduation program provides some insight into the broader program she is pushing today.
Back in the early naughts, Christy tried to create a fully streamed graduation program, complete with eight distinct pathways and different degrees. Starting in grade 10 (age 14 or 15), students would choose a pathway and each would lead to a different place – be that university, vocational school, or perhaps right out into that service sector job at Walmart. At the time, she denied that this was a form of streaming, yet the proposal came at the same time as the introduction of provincial exams starting in grade 10 – essentially a high stakes barrier to some of these pathways for children as young as 14 (see BCTF report on page 8).
The original pathways proposal was never implemented, but the curriculum and graduation program was changed to reflect a similar approach. The graduation program now includes grade 10 – meaning decisions are made one year younger than the previous graduation program. Courses in key academic areas such as Math and English and Science that are included in the program include lower level curriculum which is not accepted for university entrance. For example, Math essentially has three pathways – what was first “Essentials”, “Applications” and “Principles” and is now “Workplace”, “Foundations” and “Pre-Calculus”. Regardless of the titles, one is for graduation only, one is for vocational program entry, and one is for university entry.
Christy left government shortly after these changes. During Gordon Campbell’s tenure, the focus of government education disruption was somewhat different. Entranced by technology and the Global Education Reform Movement, Campbell’s year were more closely aligned with the project for 21st Century Learning (see my critique here). But Christy is back and her original vision has come with her, albeit with a heavily shifted focus not to any old vocation, but towards vocational training primarily in the trades and resource sector. Thus the government has mostly abandoned Campbell’s BC Education Plan (whatever it was), the “vision for 21st Century Learning” from the BC Technology Council, and replaced these with the BC Skills for Jobs Blueprint.
If you haven’t had a look at the Blueprint yet, you should. It aims to redirect students from a comprehensive senior secondary program into a trades training program that will merge seamlessly from secondary school to college. Many of the pieces are already in place, and a student can already begin their trades training in Grade 10 and be taking dual credit courses at college in Grade 12 and be ready to work shortly thereafter. Passport to Education grants, which gave some grants to graduating students and were applicable for all subjects, have been replaced with much larger grants covering only trades programs.
Like every other Christy policy extolling the virtues of “choice”, in the case of trades training, this is nothing but a smokescreen. The illusion of choice always comes with institutional barriers that will in fact direct some students down one pathway and leave choices only for a select and privileged few. It is therefore fitting that general upgrading for post-secondary entrance is out, while the new trades path from grade 10 is in. Upgrading for adults allows for mobility between pathways – a genuine choice and opportunity.
Christy’s program is noticeably similar and in line with the push by the Federal Conservatives for a national trades training system. Minister Jason Kenney recently took a delegation to Germany, where there is a long history of streaming students from age ten into either university or vocational schooling. The Jobs Blueprint promise to “reengineer training and education in BC” fits right in with Kenney’s plan to “reinvent” vocational high schools.
Kenney also uses the “choice” cover for what is actually a step towards further inequality. “This is about choices for kids,” he said. “Sometimes the German system is criticized as being brutal with its streaming in the secondary school system. The truth is that they’re just trying to help reflect where kids’ aptitudes and interests are.” (Canadian Press)
Ironically Germans themselves are looking at the horrific racial and class divisions entrenched in their education system. As the Guardian reports:
“most children are streamed at the age of 10 into either the Gymnasium, a route to university; the Realschule, where mid-level vocational studies are common; or the Hauptschule, for a basic secondary education.
Inequality is rampant. Children from a privileged background are four times as likely to attend Gymnasium as a child with similar grades from a working-class home and, according to the federal education body KMK, children of immigrant families attend the Hauptschule twice as often as native children – even within the same socio-economic class.” (Guardian)
What is left unspoken by either Christy or her Federal counterparts is that this is a program to relieve business of the costs of training and at the same time practically eliminate comprehensive secondary education for many students, and in particular those who are low income or who struggle in school. Unsurprisingly, aboriginal students are specifically targeted, under the guise of special grants and mentor-ship programs.
Far from choice or opportunity, this grander scheme is about putting children in their place.
Staffroom Confidential: The Mind of Christy Clark
My colleagues and I were somewhat perplexed at the lunch table this week to grasp the motivation behind the latest decision of the BC Liberals to end funding for adult graduates to upgrade their high school courses. OK yes, it is obvious they want to fund less and charge more
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: CGE models and carbon tax incidence
A colleague of mine pointed out a relatively new paper about the distributional impacts of BC’s carbon tax. In my work, we look at actual energy expenditures by different household groups, and because lower income groups spend a greater share of their income on (carbon-intensive) energy, any carbon tax is
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