Government spending on buildings is often rated more highly than money spent on people.
After all, the fact that a new school or highway is an investment is the justification for going into long-term debt.
But what happens when you spend money on jobs?
That’s the question many may be asking as Education Minister Rob Fleming went on record as saying that hiring 3,500 additional teachers across B.C. is going to cost the province $376 million.
Some might say that money coming out of all our pockets would be better spent by taxpayers themselves. Whether you think hiring teachers is money well spent may depend on which political party you belong to, whether or not you have children and what you expect from the education system.
But we say it’s money well spent.
Of course, we all know how we got here. The B.C. Liberals tore up the teachers’ collective agreement by legislating class size and composition to save money, then fought tooth and nail against the teachers who laboured to get their contract restored.
The former Christy Clark government lost that battle in the Supreme Court and now Victoria is restoring smaller class sizes, meaning more teachers, and we get to see whether that is money well spent.
We’ll see, for example, if more teachers and smaller classes with more resources for special needs children will improve students’ experiences while making teachers less stressed.
It’s hard to say whether we’ll see an immediate impact in scholastic achievement.
But the immediate outcome is that schools will have more resources and students will be better served than in recent years.
We also know that the $376 million is, for the most part, going right back into the economy as young teachers will be paying rent, buying and furnishing condos, and paying back student loans – they might even go out for dinner on occasion.
Sure, we need bridges, roads, schools and hospitals.
But when you hire teachers, you make an immediate impact on both kids and the economy.
