Given the recent situation of the letter criticizing the wage increases in the Surrey School district, I believe that a holistic perspective should be taken to determine the most appropriate further steps that should be taken. When considering the situation from a long run point of view, there is substantial evidence to display the flaws in the call for a two-year wage freeze.
Firstly, the comparison between student enrollment numbers from 2022 to 2023 displays a significant increase. In 2022, there were approximately 74,712.5 School-Age Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) Students, and 295.5 Adult FTE Students. Contrasting this to the 77,189.6 School-Age Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) Students, and 310.2 Adult FTE Students in 2023, there is an approximate increase of 3.2% from the previous year. (Source) While this influx in students is not unnatural for a popular area such as Surrey, maintaining the student to teacher ratio required for a proper education causes heavy demand for teachers that do not currently exist. As such, it is only logical that there is an increase in wages in order to balance out the growing student population of Surrey.
It is also important to note that inflation rates play a heavy role on the public’s perception of the wage increase. Total inflation in this case is mainly analyzed through the Consumer Price Index (CPI), which rose by 3.9% on average in 2023. If we were to take into consideration both the student enrollment numbers and the inflation rate as factors that causes a natural increase of wages, it can be observed that even without considering the compounding effects of the two causes, the summation of the 3.2% increase in students and 3.9% inflation rates results in a larger expected wage increase of 7.1% in comparison to the actual increase of only 5.3%. When considering this, the increase in wages established is not ridiculously high as many imagine, but is actually an undercompensation for teachers that are now overworked and strained by the rising number of students.
Finally, I would like to bring up the case that much of the evidence presented against the rise of wages for teachers can be misleading. For instance, the highlighting of one specific teacher receiving a 13.9% increase in their wages does not reflect the situation of teachers as a whole. It would be evidently biased to base the situations of the entire teacher on specific examples that often serve as extreme outliers caused by promotions, added responsibilities, or professional advancements. In order to establish a just policy on the wages that teachers should receive, it is crucial that evidence is collected with a non-biased selection that reflects the reality that teachers currently face in Surrey.
Given these arguments, I would like to make the case that a wage freeze would drastically hinder the growth of teachers in Surrey, whose role is becoming increasingly important in such a rapidly developing community.The real issue does not lie within overpaying teachers, but rather the underfunding causes the issues we observe today. Rather than punishing the teachers that are simply receiving compensation that has been long overdue, we should instead focus on advocating for better provincial funding and planning innovative solutions to preserve the quality of education that has been long upheld within our community.