After the knock-down, drag-out fight of the recent public schools strike, it's understandable that the Coquitlam Teachers' Association and others want to remind British Columbians that the government should do more to fund public education properly.
Indeed, as one of the lowest funded school districts in the province, Coquitlam is at the bottom of the heap and deserves even more attention from the province and a better funding formula that would enable the district to run schools and pay for supplies.
But there is a point at which efforts to achieve long-range political goals may confound efforts to do good work in schools today, and such is the case with the teachers' opposition to the Chevron Fuel Your School program.
Certainly, we would prefer our children's education isn't beholden to international oil companies. As well, if these companies aren't paying their fair share of taxes, something needs to be done about this at the provincial and federal level.
And certainly, there has been plenty of downloading from senior levels of government to local elected bodies.
But protesting such buck-passing, it seems, has no practical effect.
And denying children the opportunity to get resources for hands-on science, technology, education and math projects is short-sighted. For one thing, these resources would otherwise not be available to students; for another, they could one day inspire a child to pursue a career that ends our reliance on oil that now shapes our world - from shipping, to plastics, to food distribution and day-to-day transportation.
It seems naive to think that by opposing these small grants - which are approved by an organization at arm's length from Chevron, come with no corporate branding and don't require schools to buy from Chevron or promote the company in any way - the giant oil cartels will be brought down or the BC Liberals will boost education funding.
What's more, these grants are available to all School District 43 schools - not just affluent ones - levelling the playing field in fundraising. Would it be better for parents to pay out of pocket for materials or spend time fundraising, or that classrooms go without?
The only people hurt by this protest are kids - not BC Liberal MLAs, people who drive cars or, indeed, Chevron shareholders - just kids, and that's a shame.
