Every day, teachers see the effects of poverty on students. Teachers know that hungry children can't learn properly and insecure families can't provide a nurturing learning environment.
Teachers know that education is an antidote to poverty.
That is why teachers defend public education, and work with other citizens to defend the broad range of social policies that help make our society more equitable. The BCTF has, throughout its history, recognized that quality public education for all can grow and develop only in an atmosphere of social and economic justice. Teachers see adequate income and health and social services as part of an integrated whole. Current government policies have abandoned not only social programs dedicated to equity but also the objective of full employment. Social policy has been sacrificed to deficit reduction.