Backgrounder: Excellence in Education - A Learning-First Approach

BACKGROUNDER 

Excellence in Education: A Learning-First Approach

BC kids deserve bright futures, and it’s our responsibility to empower our children with a high-quality education grounded in knowledge, facts, and the science of learning. An education that meets the unique needs of every child and prepares them for the future. 

Students in BC used to lead the country in math scores. Under the NDP, educational performance has declined and now lags the national average. Similarly, BC students’ scores in reading and science have also dropped.

A learning-first approach in safe classrooms is needed to ensure the foundational building blocks of learning and thriving. NDP policies like eliminating letter grades, exams, and deadlines do the opposite: they lower standards and leave students under-developed from their full potential.

NDP changes to schools begs the question: why? None of the changes improve educational quality or student success – they just make it harder for parents to know how their own kids are doing in school.

It’s time for common sense change to put learning first and restore excellence in education.

Excellence in education 

Education should be about elevating students, helping the next generation to discover and actualize their potential.

Students deserve better than the NDP’s race to the bottom. David Eby’s decision to end letter grades for students up to Grade 9 has left parents in the dark about how their children are doing at school, and as if that wasn’t enough, they also scrapped the standardized provincial exams in Grade 10 and 12 – which were a key accountability tool for both student and school performance. The Conservative Party of BC will:

• Restore letter grades for students from Grade 4 through 9, and ensure parents and students in all grades have clarity about educational achievement.
• Restore standardized provincial exams in grades 10 and 12, allowing for the consistent measurement of student and school performance.

Programs that foster the educational and social needs of academically gifted students should be expanded, not cancelled. We can and must do better than the NDP’s ‘getting students to graduation’ model of education. The Conservative Party of BC will:

• Expand access to programs and supports for academically-gifted students by working with school districts to build on existing successes and identify new opportunities.
• Restore the Transition Program for Gifted Children, cancelled by Eby earlier this year.

Investing in students

Conservatives believe that all kids in BC have the right to a quality education, and that parents are best-suited to decide whether a government school, independent school, or homeschooling is the most appropriate learning context for their child.

More parents than ever are considering alternatives to government schools due to concerns about ideology in classrooms and declining standards. Regardless of their choice in education, all families and students deserve the same respect and the opportunity to succeed. The Conservative Party of BC will:

• Equip all students for success by making sure kids have the tools and supports to learn in the way that’s best for them – whether in government, independent, or home schooling.
• Listen to parents who choose to homeschool about what can be done to remove barriers to homeschooling and enhance support for home learners.
• Reverse the NDP’s cuts to independent distributed learning schools and establish a pathway to funding parity with government-run distributed learning.
• Encourage educational innovation by allowing independent schools to have flexibility in non-core curriculum areas while still maintaining consistent standards.

Classrooms for learning, not ideology

Ideology has no place in a classroom, and parents are tired of being called “hateful” by the NDP for asking basic questions about the material that kids are being exposed to. When kids go to school, parents trust and expect the school to provide a quality education in a safe environment – not activist ideology that could send kids down a dangerous path.

Students should be taught how to think, not what to think. To protect kids, restore parental rights, and get schools focused on learning, the Conservative Party of BC will:

• Replace SOGI 123 with zero-tolerance anti-bullying programs and supports, which is how SOGI 123 was originally – and falsely – marketed to parents. All students must be genuinely protected from the threat of bullying, and Conservatives will do what it takes to keep kids safe.
• Identify and remove lesson plans, seminars, policy guides, curriculum elements, and practices stemming from SOGI 123.
• Respect parental rights and protect kids by ensuring that parents are immediately informed of suicidal ideations by their child.
• Uplift all kids by ensuring the ideological neutrality of classroom materials, and that kids are made to feel proud about who they are. Education should be about uplifting students into their full potential.

Building the schools BC needs

In too many communities, parents can’t find a nearby school that has capacity. Long commutes and portables have proliferated as the NDP has failed to invest in the necessary capital investments for appropriate school infrastructure.

Band-aid solutions like portables and Surrey’s plan to put students on shifts – some starting in the early morning hours – are symptoms of failure to invest in our future.

British Columbia’s population has grown significantly in the past decade, and so have demands on schools in many communities: over 80% of Surrey’s schools are over capacity, and other growing regions face similar challenges. To build the schools BC needs, the Conservative Party of BC will:

• Open new schools when families move-in to a neigbourhood, not years later, by revamping the Ministry of Education capital budgeting process. 8 years ago, the NDP itself said that the budgeting model is broken – then did nothing to fix it.
• Work with local government to expedite approval for new independent schools, and ensure adequate land availability and zoning flexibility for all types of schools.
• Support school districts in the adoption of compact and urban school models, which can provide kids with access to the full range of amenities while reducing land consumption and costs.
• Phase-out portables. Modular classrooms can provide a significantly more attractive, comfortable, and practical environment for learning compared to portables. Where it is not feasible to build a new school, modular buildings will be used to phase-out the widespread use of portables in BC.

Diverse Needs & Autism

Every student has a unique experience with the education system. About one in every eight students in the British Columbia educational system have been identified as having diverse needs, with the number of kids diagnosed with autism constantly increasing since 2008.

To make sure students with diverse needs are empowered to learn in the way that’s best for them, the Conservative Party of BC will:

• Restore funding to autism support providers, which was cancelled in 4 communities so Eby could “pilot” a radical plan that parents didn’t ask for. Parents know best what kinds of supports their children require, and unlike Eby’s plan, we will never force families into a one-size-fits-all model.
• Accelerate the development of new independent Inclusive Education Schools which currently cover Autism Spectrum Disorder and other special needs.
• Recruit more support workers to cut down on the 18-24 month assessment wait time under the NDP.

 Keeping kids safe

Classrooms and school hallways need to be safe havens where kids can focus on learning without bullying and violence.

The School Liaison Officers program (SLOs) was designed to build relationships between school communities and local police. SLOs served as a resource for students, administrators, and staff to enhance the safety and security of the school.

The activist NDP government said they were concerned about the “harm” police officers in schools were causing. It was nonsense – they wanted to please their anti-police activist base. To restore safety to schools, the Conservative Party of BC will:

• Support teachers and administrators in maintaining a safe and peaceful school environment, free from violence or disruption. We will work with schools to review and update standards for administrative conduct regarding discipline.
• Restore the School Liaison Officers program to ensure our kids are safe at school and have positive connections with their communities.
• End the NDP’s dangerous “Safe Supply” experiment that is finding its way into schools and landing in the hands of our children, with tragic results.

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Parents are tired of being ignored by Eby’s NDP as the government de-prioritizes learning, lowers standards, and uses classrooms for ideological experiments.

Investing in the next generation is a core function of government – not a stage for politics. The Conservative Party of BC will rebuild trust with parents, put learning first, build the schools communities need when they are needed, and keep kids safe. That’s our promise to every parent and student in BC.