B.C. teachers court loss disappointing for some parents

Some parent groups are disappointed with Thursday's court ruling which sided with the province against the B.C. Teacher's Federation.

In a 4-1 decision, the B.C. Court of Appeal said the province did not violate teachers' constitutional rights when it introduced Bill 22 in 2012 — legislation that temporarily limited teacher bargaining on class size and composition.

However,  the government acknowledged that it has to bargain class size and composition in future negotiations, and points out the issues were on the table during the last round of negotiations.

Still, the ruling means the government is under no obligation to restore class size limits and ratios stripped out by Bill 28 in 2002 — legislation that has since been deemed unconstitutional.

Farah Shroff — the co-chair of the Vancouver District Parent Advisory Council — says class sizes do matter.

"It's a lose, lose, lose situation. It's a loss for the students who have the special needs, it's a loss for the other students and it's a loss for the teachers."

"What should be about the children and youth first has gone from one court case to another, and it's really bad news for kids and the state of education in British Columbia."

Vancouver School Board trustee Patti Bacchus says she would like funding for education to be restored to the levels before this dispute began. 

"What the original legislation did that created this dispute was enabled government to force school boards into a position of making significant cuts to staffing, so you've seen differences in the class sizes, composition, on enrolling teachers and that is putting a huge strain on the system and affecting our ability to provide the very best learning opportunities."

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