British Columbia's public school teachers say the provincial government is trying to silence their criticism by eliminating teachers' ability to govern the profession.

Under proposed changes to the Teaching Profession Act introduced in the provincial legislature last month, the structure of the B.C. College of Teachers will be radically altered. At present, 20 people sit on the college's governing council: 15 are elected by teachers and five are appointed. Under the new legislation, eight people will be elected, 11 will be political appointees chosen by the minister of education and one will be nominated by the deans of education.

"In other words, these changes give a politician, rather than the professionals, effective control over the college," said Neil Worboys, president of the B.C. Teachers' Federation. "The minister is taking control of the profession away from teachers and giving it to her political friends."

The changes are needed to ensure greater "public accountability" over the college, Education Minister Christy Clark said in defending her government's actions.

"The public was poorly represented on the college council under the previous structure," she said. "Now, the council will have representation not only from teachers, but also the public, parents and other education partners."

Along with changes in the college's representation, the emerging legislation will also allow parents to file complaints with the college.

"At present, there is no mechanism for the public to directly make a complaint to the college regarding a teacher's conduct," Clark commented. "The changes we're making will ensure greater input for parents, including the right to directly raise concerns about teacher misconduct. These changes will help increase public confidence in teacher competency and the education system."

But the federation says the Education Minister is misleading the public about the college.

"Parents have always had the ability to go to the college with any complaints," Worboys explained. "The legislation will not help parents because it will add another layer of bureaucracy to the problem-solving process."

He noted that when the government of Mike Harris formed the Ontario College of Teachers, the number of parental complaints doubled and a large backlog soon developed. College investigations resulted in long delays, he said, and issues were often referred back to local school boards.

"Many parents ended up feeling like they'd just gone on a long and winding road back to square one. How does that help parents? More important, how does it help students?"

He said teachers are distressed that the minister is attempting to cast parents and teachers as adversaries when the vast majority are allies with students' best interests at heart.

"This is the latest in a series of attacks on teachers by the Liberals," Worboys says. "First they took away our right to bargain collectively. Then they gutted our collective agreement and imposed a contract that they refused to fund. Now we see them attacking our profession itself."