Dale Kirby flip-flop 'negatively impacts his credibility': NLTA president
The head of the Newfoundland and Labrador Teachers' Association is criticizing the backtracking of the province's education minister on a commitment not to remove any more teachers from the classroom.
"It negatively impacts his credibility, but it also negatively impacts the credibility of this government," said Jim Dinn, NLTA president.
Kirby at first said, in an interview with CBC News, that he wouldn't remove any more teachers from the classroom.
"Over my dead body," he said Wednesday in response to a question about whether schools would see larger class sizes.
"It's stripped back now to the point where there's nothing left to take, short of going in and taking some of the furniture."
The next day Kirby issued a statement "clarifying" that he only meant that the formula used to allocate teachers wouldn't change.
That means there could be fewer teachers in some schools if enrolment goes down.
The premier backed up Kirby that the formula won't change, but the government has not said where it plans to find the $200 million it needs to meet a stated deficit-reduction target.
Dinn said Friday the commitment to education isn't making him happy.
"It gives us some measure of comfort that the allocation model is not going to be altered, but the damage is done," he said.
"The cuts were made in budget 2016. We've been living with those effects throughout this year and that's not acceptable."
Dinn said in particular there aren't enough teachers to deal with inclusive education, an issue that has been raised during CBC's series Inside the Classroom.
