Michael Zwaagstra is a public high school teacher and a senior fellow at the Fraser InstituteThe schoolyear is over, but the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) recently launched its “Better BC Schools” campaign. Unsurprisingly, CUPE wants the British Columbia government to spend more.According to CUPE, the government has been underfunding schools for many years. Like other public-sector unions, CUPE argues that more government spending will lead to better results. Specifically, CUPE wants the government to hire more student support workers.However, what CUPE fails to note is that the B.C. government has already increased its spending. From 2012/13 to 2021/22 (the last year of available data,) B.C.’s per-student spending on government schools grew by 6.7 per cent (after adjusting for inflation). In other words, education spending in B.C. is going up, not down..Importantly, there’s no evidence that this extra spending has led to better academic performance for students. Over the same 10-year period, according to results from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), B.C. student performance declined by the equivalent of more than one full grade level in math, science and reading. Again, more money does not guarantee higher academic achievement for students.There’s also no guarantee that any spending increases would pay for more school support workers. The money could just as easily be used to increase existing staff salaries or enlarge school board bureaucracies. It’s wishful thinking to assume that throwing money at the problem will ensure that students get the academic support they need.Thus, if organizations such as CUPE are serious about improving academic achievement, they should move away from simplistic campaigns intended to bolster their membership and instead embrace reforms to benefit students..For starters, the B.C. government should reverse its disastrous curriculum changes. Beginning in 2016, the government overhauled its curriculum guides to put less emphasis on content knowledge and more emphasis on the so-called “process of learning.” It's particularly concerning that B.C. curriculum guides do a poor job of covering Canadian history. Sadly, there are few specific events, people and dates from Canadian history that all B.C. students are required to memorize. No wonder B.C. students are struggling academically.In addition, the government must bring back provincial exams. B.C. students used to write course-specific provincial exams that made up 20 per cent of their final mark in Grade 10 and 40 per cent in Grade 12. Unfortunately, these exams have been replaced by vague literacy and numeracy assessments that are no longer based on the course content. To make matters worse, these assessments do not even count as part of a student’s final mark, which means students are far less likely to take them seriously..And the Eby government should also enact policies that unleash more innovation within the independent school system. While B.C. is one of five Canadian provinces that provide financial support to parents attending independent schools, there are significant restrictions on this support.For example, B.C. currently requires independent schools that receive government grants to implement the provincial programs of study. This limits diversity of learning and inhibits experimentation with different approaches that can lead to better results for some students. Instead, the province should set specific learning outcomes for all schools and remove the requirement that independent schools use the same curriculum guides imposed on government schools..It's important to note that none of these reforms require more money. Provincial governments make curriculum changes regularly so B.C. could simply spend its curriculum development budget on changes proven to improve student academic performance. Similarly, the province can reallocate its current spending on literacy and numeracy assessments to provincial exams that test course-specific content knowledge. And allowing independent schools to use alternative curriculum guides shouldn’t cost the provincial government any money at all.CUPE is correct — B.C. needs better schools. However, the union is wrong to suggest that more money is the solution. Beginning next September, B.C. students deserve meaningful reforms, not empty policies that will increase CUPE’s bottom line.Michael Zwaagstra is a public high school teacher and a senior fellow with the Fraser Institute.
