Here’s my latest column.

While public school enrollment declines, more and more parents are putting their children into private schools. Critics like to portray these parents as either rich snobs or religious extremists, but what they should be asking is why there’s an exodus from public schools?

The answer isn’t that parents are becoming more religious, or suddenly have a lot more money. The exodus more likely has a lot to do with the fact that many independent schools offer a better quality education — in the latest Fraser Institute ranking independent schools make up 23 of the 25 high schools. Another factor is that because parents pay fees, principals have to be more responsive to parent concerns. In the public system parents can be, and regularly are, ignored.

The government provides a subsidy to independent schools because parents already pay education taxes to the public system. This also means independent schools are inspected by the provincial Ministry of Education. Altogether about 11% of B.C. students are in independent schools.

If independent schools are providing a better product, the answer should not be to cut their subsidy to lower their quality, or raise their fees to make it less affordable, or both. The public system should be looking to the private system as a model.

One thing many parents want is a greater say in how their public schools are run — so B.C. should consider publicly funded “free schools” like in the UK. Parents can found a school with a particular focus, such as art or business, and then are involved in the running of the school, including hiring the principal.

It should also be easier for parents to move their children to good schools within the public system.

Embracing competition is the answer to improving public education.

And as for the cries that teachers are paid too little? That comes down to competition too — there are too many. In 2010 about 2,700 new teachers were certified, but there is only demand for about 1,000 positions in the public system.

Basic economics teaches us that when supply outstrips demand, the wages are going to be low. Raising wages is great for current teachers, but does nothing for the quality of education.

B.C. has some great schools, so let’s fix the system to make all schools more like the best, and not drag them all down to the lowest common denominator.

My latest post for EthicalOil.org: It’s been more than three months since EthicalOil.org and thousands of proud Canadians joined together to call for a consumer boycott against Chiquita after that company agreed to participate in a boycott of its own: against Canada’s ethical oil.

According to a report in The Economist, Chiquita is paying the price.

“This may have pleased environmentalists, but it infuriated Canadians who depend on the oil industry. A pro-business lobby called EthicalOil.org is urging a boycott of Chiquita’s products that is said to be costing the company a fortune. Chiquita would not quantify its losses.”

Trying to score cheap points with environmentalists by throwing Canada’s unparalleled ethical standards under the bus should cost Chiquita a fortune. And it should stand as a warning to any other company that thinks it can target Canada just to suck up to a few fringe environmental radicals, like the foreign-backed activists at ForestEthics.

There’s a reason other fruit producers, like Dole and Del Monte, haven’t caved in to ForestEthics’ bogus spin and bullying tactics against them to join Chiquita’s Ethical Oil boycott: they’ve seen what happens to companies who try scoring cheap points by unfairly smearing Canada.

Let’s make sure it stays that way: don’t let up the boycott; keep up the pressure on Chiquita. We’re winning.

Today I launched a new column with 24 Hours Vancouver called “the Duel” where David Eby and I will battle it out on an issue each week.  David Eby is the Executive Director of the BC Civil Liberties Association, a law professor and has also run for the BC NDP.  He’s a great guy, but needless to say, we likely won’t agree on much! Everyone loves a good debate, and this column is about just that.

You can read both of this week’s columns here.

My latest article.

These days, we do almost everything online. If we can ‘one click shop’ and bank, why can’t ‘we one click vote?’

The NDP federal leadership convention held this weekend demonstrated some of the problems with casting e-votes. Technology-wise, this convention was trumpeted as being state of the art, and people were able to vote online and with their smart phones.

Hackers delayed the voting process by attacking the so-called technologically advanced voting system.

The delays didn’t stop people from taking their frustration to another online medium. Twitter was soon cluttered with complaints from NDP members saying they couldn’t vote using the online system.

While no voting system is immune to problems, online voting is especially vulnerable to hacking and manipulation. Systems can be hacked from anywhere in the world by civilians and organizations.

The door is also left wide open for fraud. One of the biggest concerns with allowing people to cast their vote online is that there is no way to truly identify the voter.

Online voting trials have exposed some of the risks. Washington DC put any plans to introduce Internet voting on hold after running a failed test where they invited computer savvy experts to attempt to infiltrate the system. It didn’t take long for one of them to succeed, and the system trial was shut down.

Vancouver has mused about introducing online voting, although plans were nixed to pilot Internet voting during the last municipal election due to security concerns. The province has said it may have a web-voting system in place by 2014. However, British Columbians may have their chance to cast a digital ballot as early as this year if a bill tabled in the legislature calling for the online voting of federal senators gets passed.

A rationale behind allowing people to vote online is that it will increase voter turnout. There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of truth to this notion. Even with web voting, the voter turnout at the NDP was low.

What drives voter turnout is choice, not convenience. One of the highest voter turnouts in Canada pre-dated the Internet age: the 1988 federal election where 75% of eligible voters cast a ballot. What drove turnout in that election was real choice on a major policy: free trade.

There’s something to be said for the old saying ‘if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.’ If people can wait in line at the post office and Apple store, they can wait in line every few years to cast a ballot

My latest column.

It’s hard to say what’s more consistent in B.C.: the rain or talk about the on-going dispute between the province’s teachers and the government. For months, British Columbians have been inundated with both the government’s case and the unions’ case.

The two sides can argue, posture, legislate and strike, but the students are the collateral damage. In all this, who is looking out for the interests of students? While the teacher’s unions like to talk about the interests of students, let’s be clear, they are representing their own interests first and foremost.

There’s been little focus on the students who are stuck in the middle of the standoff. Most people who don’t have kids will be surprised to learn that because of the teachers’ job action, no report cards have been issued this school year.

For younger students, this arguably has less of an impact. For students in grade 12 who are applying for admission to universities and colleges this fall, the absence of report cards is a disaster. While B.C.’s universities are making some adjustments to try and accommodate these unique circumstances, this will put British Columbian students applying to schools in other provinces or in the U.S. at a big disadvantage.

Report cards aren’t the only thing students have had to go without. Some teachers’ associations in the province have put a stop to extracurricular services — a trend that more school districts could follow.

It’s not just fun that students are missing out on. For the students who rely on their involvement in sports and school clubs to strengthen their university admission applications, the lack of extracurricular activities has a much bigger impact.

This job action is not some trivial bargaining chip in a fight between unions and government — it is having a significant real impact on the futures of thousands of B.C. students.

Students don’t have hired advocates or lobby groups, and they don’t have big budgets to run ads or campaigns on their behalf. Instead, they get left waiting in the bleachers while the grownups duke it out.

Put the money aside, put the class size aside — the government and union need to come together and resolve the report card issue right now.

It should be priority number one to get report cards into the hands of students and parents as soon as possible. It’s putting the interests of students first, and ensuring their futures aren’t disrupted by today’s dispute.