A thought I had in the current teachers dispute is, those who can afford private schooling have education for their children right now, and the rest don't. Public money makes up about half of private schooling's budget. Last year this was a two-tiered system that some would argue was unfair, this year it is a one-tiered system that is purely unacceptable.
My proposal to clear the current impasse is to suspend public funding of private schools until this argument is settled and all children are back in class. A shock like that might quicken the pace of negotiations. The interesting thing about shock is, after the initial indignity, there is room to compromise and in this case it seems fair to reduce public funding for private schools by 10 per cent each year for the next 10 years until ''private school'' means just that. The resulting savings could then help fund public schools properly.
There are fundamental cornerstones of civilized society and one of them is universal education, the only possible argument against that is if you count on ignorance to gain power.
Rob Neaga
Squamish
