Dear Educators, Politicians, and Anyone Listening,
It’s time we speak the truth.
The education system in British Columbia — and much of Canada — has lost its way. What was once meant to be a path to empowerment has become a money machine. A machine that eats up the dreams of international students, overburdens local families, and spits out people in debt, desperate, and discarded.
This is UNACCEPTABLE.
Let’s start with the foreign student pipeline:
Private institutions — often disguised as “universities” — are pumping out overpriced, low-value diplomas to international students who are sold a dream. They’re told: “Come to Canada, study here, get a great job, stay forever.” But what they actually get is crushing debt, low-wage survival jobs, and sometimes exploitation.
Many end up in security roles or delivery apps — barely surviving, not thriving.
Meanwhile, the system profits off them. These institutions are not built for learning. They are built for extracting cash and feeding immigration loopholes.
And let’s talk about those of us born and raised here:
We can’t get home care for our elders.
We can’t access child support or affordable housing.
We can’t afford retraining unless we go into debt, and even then, it’s for jobs that don’t even exist anymore.
And what about caregivers, mental health workers, addiction support, and housing specialists? Where are those training programs?
They exist — if you can pay thousands.
How is it that in a province with a massive housing and mental health crisis, we’re not teaching students how to deal with Alzheimer’s, autism, fentanyl recovery, or community gardening?
Instead, we push coding and business diplomas — things people don’t even want or need, just because they look good on paper or attract tuition money.
This is a betrayal.
A betrayal of the values education is supposed to stand for.
And let’s not forget — this is the same education system with a dark, violent history. Residential schools. Colonial erasure. Generations of trauma.
We haven’t even fully apologized, and already we’re building new systems of harm, wrapped in glossy brochures and fake success stories.
We need a New BC.
A BC where:
- Education is about care, healing, resilience, and community.
- Students — local and international — are treated with dignity, not as walking tuition fees.
- Teachers are empowered to teach what really matters: mental health, elder care, food security, conflict resolution, and life skills.
- Learning is free or affordable and accessible to all ages, not just the lucky or the wealthy.
- We train people to protect life, not enforce authority. No more six-figure transit cops ticketing the poor. No more newcomers forced into roles of punishment and surveillance.
This is a call-out — and a call-in.
To the educators: We need you to speak up.
To the policymakers: We need you to listen and act.
To the people: It’s time to demand a system that serves the public, not profits from it.
Education should never be a trap.
It should be a bridge — to purpose, to healing, to community.
We can still build that bridge. But only if we stop lying to ourselves about what we’ve become.
New BC starts here.
New education starts now.
— Tina Winterlik aka Zipolita
