‘Denial’ ain’t just a river in Egypt.

I followed some links, and no doubt appeals will take place all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In the Wall Street Journal - “Judge Tim Kelley, a Republican, ruled that the program, championed by GOP Gov. Bobby Jindal, illegally diverts tax money intended for public schools to private and religious schools instead.

The voucher program was funded by a block-grant program which Judge Kelley ruled is restricted by the constitution to funding only public schools.

“Nowhere was it mandated that funds from [the block-grant program]…be provided for an alternative education beyond what the Louisiana education system was set up for,” he wrote. The state can legally fund vouchers, but the funding “must come from some other portion of the general budget,” Judge Kelley said.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324705104578151570134436156.html#articleTabs=article

In Colorado - “On June 21, 2011, plaintiffs including the ACLU and Americans United for Separation of Church and State filed a legal complaint against the Choice Scholarship Program. Two weeks later plaintiffs submitted a formal injunction request. A three-day hearing (August 2-4) in Denver District Court resulted in a ruling by Judge Michael A. Martinez to enjoin the program. More than 300 Douglas County students had enrolled in a private school partner for the 2011-12 year, and some had begun class as of the August 12 decision. Judge Martinez determined that “the threatened constitutional injuries…outweighs the threatened harm the injunction may inflict on” scholarship students and families.”
http://education.i2i.org/douglas-county-vouchers/

The constitutions of the states, is where the problem lies. But at the heart of the manner, is a type of voucher that has scholarship in its name, that the unions don’t like, and Civil Rights organizations don’t like, because they operate on a lottery system. Yesterday, there is growing dislike of the scholarship voucher programs by unions and their political counterparts. Rather odd, because the U.S. president, Obama had the benefits of a scholarship like voucher to attend private school, that their family would never be able to afford.

In the Colorado link - a video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=vZhhS716dIQ

How do teachers, unions, school boards and even the teachers faculties look at themselves in the mirror? They don’t have to, when they have political lobbying of the teachers’ unions, and other highly placed individuals of the stakeholders to do the dirty work of covering and masking the public education system dirt, and their dismal record of poor education quality for all students.

The teacher who looks in the mirror, only sees the saintly virtues of their teaching training and profession, What they do not see, is the fallout and final outcomes of students. In Canada more so, because the legislated school acts have told them, legally that the public education system exists to delivered a minimum level of education. No more or no less, and that is until the Supreme Court of Canada ruling on the Moore case.

They don’t see the fallout and causalities of the public education system,  because of the political lobbying of the teachers’ unions, and school boards that it is privatization that is the culprit. In reality, privatization is the ruse that maintains the picture and imagery of public education good, and choice is bad. When the actions of parents and students are viewed through the lens of the privatization ideology, and other political ideologies, by the education stakeholders, we are seen as the means to serve their best interests.

But the day is coming, when it will be no longer just, and be described as discriminatory behaviour by government entities when they played out their battles of self-serving interests, on the citizens they served.

On the ETFO site - ” The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) believes that a high quality education for all, irrespective of needs and abilities, should be enshrined as a basic human right in the Canadian Constitution. The way to guarantee this right is through a well-financed public education system.”
http://www.etfo.ca/issuesineducation/privatizationofpubliceducation/pages/default.aspx

Meanwhile, unions and school boards are fighting tooth and nail in the courts of the land, to deny children, their students the right to a quality education, that includes the ability to read, write and do numeracy well, and as well the right for a safe environment within the school walls.  How do teachers look at themselves in the mirror? Not too closely.

They believe in what they are doing as much as you do. They believe that public schools are good for children,and private schools are bad for children and society.

Tolerating Ambiguity

I came across this term long ago as a parent representative on some education committee. I think it was on a task force looking into reading concerns.

It was kinda — wink-wink among the teacher contingent — we’re tolerating ambiguity here, folks. 

I think they teach that in Psych 101 or Sociology 101 or somewhere?  I’ve heard it a lot since the 70s.  Nowadays, I think the code word is “complexity”.  The system sees contradictions and knows they’re talking about “tolerating ambiguity” but to parents they say, “It’s too complex” and tail between their legs, parent shy away.

Since more everyday teachers are being increasingly pressured by their unions to be more militant, I expect tolerating ambiguity will “progressively” be adopted as a defense mechanism. So as to be able to face the mirror more easily — they can dismiss any dilemmas —  “That’s the way it is.  Gotta keep my job.”

It’s so ironic, that in the land of the free — in the US & Canada — people have to fight for choices.  As parent rights and parent choice movements gain more traction we can expect more resistance from the status quo.  Threatened school boards, especially since the Moore ruling, will be leery of assertive parents.

And we now have a new playbook — The Future of Our Schools: Teachers Unions & Social Justice — which aims to spur more militancy.  The book’s author is Lois Weiner and the Publisher is Haymarket Books, which states its purpose thus —

“ . . . We believe that activists need to take ideas, history, and politics into the many struggles for social justice today. .  . . As Karl Marx said, ‘The philosophers have merely interpreted the world; the point, however, is to change it.”

Political change-agents, I guess have no trouble facing the mirror.  Changing the world is more important than helping families obtain the best education for their children.

We as parents and grandparents need to be aware of these political games and pursue the best we can for the children in our charge — in their lifetimes.

Joe, it is when it costing millions of dollars in legal fees, that are financed directly by the unions, public school funding, to fight the the opposing forces of pro-choice, civil rights and across the span of SE.

In Canada, there is no publishing of the number and type of civil suits at school boards. One doesn’t even know what number was settled out of court. Nor is it wise, for a parent not to hired a lawyer, for the appeal process of decisions made by the local school. The appeal process is certainly not transparent nor is it independent, when the tribunal is composed of the same type, that created the rules, and were part of the denial of services processes in the first place.

Belief and rabid belief has only increased the revenues for lawyers within the public education sector. If belief was all it took, Mr. Moore would not have gotten to first place, let along the Supreme Court of Canada. Mr. Moore’s belief that it was unfair that all the school and school board offered was a desk, a set of books but no accommodations and tools to access the education opportunities. He saw a lawyer, and the lawyer called it discrimination and the education heavyweights fought it tool and nail all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.

So Joe, I don’t know how you, or any educator look at themselves in the mirror, knowing full well a larger percentage of students are receiving second and third tier education. Let alone repeat the myths, or some would call lies, that private schools are bad, that only reinforces the lies of the intense lobbying of teachers’ unions and other public education stakeholders to advance their self-serving interests.

Or how teachers’ unions justifies their social justice and equity policies, while ignoring the biggest elephant of inequity, in the schools - the education quality of students and practices that keeps students as low achievers. Unfair, discriminatory and the data streams of outcomes proves it without a doubt. As do many court cases in the U.S., for the most part.

What is never acknowledge, among the believers of the public education system, and no-choice advocates are the dismal academic outcomes of students. The dollar amount that is in the billions of dollars for both Canada and U.S. for private tutoring. The dollar amount spent by parents for educational products for their children. Children are not the products of political intrigue and to have their education held hostage to serve the best interests of the public education system stakeholders. Children arrived at a public school to received an education, and not the bits and pieces of education being received, as their future doors are slammed shut before they even get out of grade 6.

There is that implication again in your first sentence that union money is public money. Union money is private money from the private incomes of the teachers.

They do not believe in developing each child’s unique potential to the utmost.  The group outweighs the individual in their view.  It’s the health of the teachers’ union and left wing politics that they care about.

No, I don’t know how they look at themselves in the mirror.

I don`t know how teachers continue to co operate either,they are in a dictatorship.If they don`t co operate they`re fined $500.00 per day.

I don`t appreciate teachers playing ball with the union,how can a doctor dispute be resolved in a few weeks,they don`t keep patients hostage.
Playing with the lives of children`s futures and parents`s anxiety over achievement and preparation for the future should be illegal,the public needs to fine them!

Tax Experts — Please HELP !

There are TWO opinions here.  The TRUTH may conclude with one or the other being TRUE — or lie somewhere in the middle.  Can someone in tax interpretation please help?

1 Union dues are private money.  They come out of the pocket of the worker.

2 Union dues are 100% deductible from net income, therefore not part of taxable income, therefore, are not private money.

QUESTION:  If the answer is #2 above, does that mean that 100% of public teacher union funds being used for collective bargaining, strike pay and political purposes are really all tax write-offs?

Teacher salaries comes from the public tax purse, and private sector salaries are derive from the monies made of selling of manufacturing goods, services and production. Unless one is in China, where the big guys are state-owned enterprises, funded partially by government revenue of taxes and fees.

The only correlation, is that both public and private salaries, the individuals can spend their salaries as they see fit to. However, it does not mean that employees of the public sector, and its stakeholders can abdicate their responsibilities and duties to provide quality services to the citizens that used government services, that are funded by the taxpayer’s purse. In the private sector, individuals inclined not to provide quality products and services are usually fired for not carrying out their responsibilities and duties of their job.

No where it is displayed in all its colours and hues but in the public education system and the stakeholders. Whose motto is me first, students, are secondary, parents are third, communities are fourth and the rest of society is dead last. Mind you, for each stakeholder, me first always comes first, but the students, parents, communities and society take turns being secondary, third, fourth and dead last in priorities.

And so I do wonder, how much of the public purse is being spent on legal expenses to fight tooth and nail the civil suits being aimed at the schools, school boards, and the education ministries. How much of the public purse is being spent on legal fees to dot the ‘i’s and cross the ‘t’s to maintained the authoritative and political choke hold of a public education system? Of where Robert says it best - “They do not believe in developing each child’s unique potential to the utmost.  The group outweighs the individual in their view.”

No profit to be made in an education system of high quality. Lots of profitable avenues for employees of the public education system, if it is of poorer education quality, that runs according to the needs of the employees first and foremost at the expense of the students’ education and their futures. After all, their salary raises rests on the foundation of delivering education services, to provide a minimum basic education. What they don’t have to provide is a quality education, that brings future positive outcomes for all students, and by extension society.

ETFO just voted 92% in a secret ballot to strike. OSSTF locals are rejecting contracts in secret ballot votes. The teachers are overwhelmingly behind their unions.

How unprofessional of them!

They are all professionals. It is a slander to say otherwise but luckily you are not the decider of professionalism.

If you believe you are right, take all the strikers to the OCT and charge them with unprofessional conduct.

Seems they overwhelmingly suppirt their leaders.

Too bad the public does not think so, nor Wente’s article in the Globe and Mail.

In Ontario, the kids get thrown under the bus

“When times were good, no one cared how much sick leave a teacher took, or how much it cost to screw in a pencil sharpener. But now that money is scarce, the old alliances are shattering. Even the most progressive, teacher-friendly governments can’t afford this stuff any more. As the social contract gets redrawn across the country, students will be frustrated and parents will be fuming for years to come. Fortunately, there will be good news. More of our education dollars might actually be spent on students….........I’m optimistic that Jill will get her reference letters and her prom – eventually. The public will insist that the teachers be legislated back to work. She’ll also get a civics lesson she won’t forget. It might be the most memorable thing she learns all year.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/in-ontario-the-kids-get-thrown-under-the-bus/article6185247/

The comments are telling that the public takes a dim view of teachers and unions. And now the new demand from the public, have teachers work a regular work day, staying until 5:30 before they can clock out for the day.

I am afraid the union brass read the public wrong, and there is no support for the union, or sympathy of the teachers and their work lives. Especially when they refused to write reference letters for grade 12 students.

Most likely outcome, if Broten imposes contracts in January, there will be no extracurricular activities for 2 years until Bill 115 has run its course.

Tax Experts — Please HELP !

There are TWO opinions here.  The TRUTH may conclude with one or the other being TRUE — or lie somewhere in the middle.  Can someone in tax interpretation please help?

1 Union dues are private money.  They come out of the pocket of the worker.
OR
2 Union dues are 100% deductible from net income, therefore, not part of taxable income, therefore, are not private money.

QUESTION:  If the answer is #2 above, does that mean that 100% of public teacher union funds being used for collective bargaining, strike pay and political purposes are really all tax write-offs?  If they were tax write-offs this would actually mean that the Canadian taxpayer is not only paying for what could be seen as a public good of workers and professionals through collective bargaining having a voice about working/pay conditions — but also paying for propaganda and political agitation AGAINST the public good!

Total nonsense Doug/Joe (let’s stop the charade ok?)

Even teachers are wondering how it is that the EFTO brain trust arrived at the 92% number when 30,000 members didn’t even vote. That makes the number more like 55%.

So enough of the myth that all teachers supprit their leaders because they sure as heck to not.

Blinded by bullying is more like it.

Tunya asks whether public sector union dues are public or private money. I think the fact that teachers must join a union in order to teach in a publicly-funded school tips the balance in favour of treating union dues as public money.

Total nonsense.

1) union dues are 100 %  private money.
2) Etfo received 92%  of the votes xast period.

Jo-Anne,

You asked me a question on an earlier thread.  I’ll respond to it here because it is still relevant.  I’ll respond to you by saying this:  many people here are working under false assumptions.  Here is a list of false assumptions (not all apply to you, I’m referring to everyone):

1)  That teachers don’t object to these policies - they do.  The boards and Ministry set the policies, they are the employers they don’t have to listen to teachers.

2)  That the flat denials of any problem (like the flat earthers) of the Joe/Dean/Dougs of the world are the prevailing opinion - it is not.  That has nothing to do with the union.  Remember, he is proud to distance himself by saying he is retired.

3)  That the lack of public teacher outcry is the union’s fault - it isn’t.  They just are not legally able to protect a teacher who publicly criticizes his/her employer.  Take your Edmonton ‘Zero Hero’ teacher for example.  The Edmonton Board recently reversed the policy – but he is still without a job (although retired, he would like to get back, but there are no offers of reversing his suspension)  All of you forget what he had to say in the first place:  he was speaking up because he could afford to, he was close to retirement, he was speaking for all of his colleagues WHO COULD NOT.

4)  The noble doctors did it, why not you? – HORSEHOCKEY!  The ‘noble doctors’ are in a better bargaining position, that is all.  If they spoke up and lost their jobs what would they do?  Hhhmmm, let’s see – go somewhere else and make three times as much?

Frankly, I’m disgusted with much of the myopic sniping that has been going on around here of late.  Ms. Dare as well as the rest of you might do well to re-read the first two points of her post on December 6:  There are no magic bullets (the more you post on charter/voucher programs doesn’t make your false hopes and junk science any more valid) and respect teachers – Merry Christmas, Humbug!

Apparently union dues plus the GST/HST paid is 100 % deductible.

“Annual dues can include the following amounts related to your employment that you paid (or that were paid for you and included in your income) in the year:

annual dues for membership in a trade union or an association of public servants; professional board dues required under provincial or territorial law;
professional or malpractice liability insurance premiums or professional membership dues required to keep a professional status recognized by law; and parity or advisory committee (or similar body) dues required under provincial or territorial law.
Annual membership dues do not include initiation fees, licences, special assessments, or charges for anything other than the organization’s ordinary operating costs. You cannot claim charges for pension plans as membership dues, even if your receipts show them as dues.

The amount shown in box 44 of your T4 slips, or on your receipts, includes any GST/HST you paid.”
http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/tpcs/ncm-tx/rtrn/cmpltng/ddctns/lns206-236/212/menu-eng.html

“The Federal Finance Department’s 2010 estimate for the union dues deduction represents hundreds of millions in foregone tax revenue on billions of dollars in dues, investment income and union training centre profits because dues are 100% deductible from Federal taxable income. Labour organization investment income is not taxed federally. Provinces may have different approaches to the tax treatment of dues, investment income and other types of revenue.”
http://www.labourwatch.com/topics/disclosure?dp=bc

” On Union Dues
(100% Tax Deductible)

At Local 1000A, we go the extra mile for our members. Our union representatives are by your side no matter what the issue is: health and safety on the job, human rights, workers’ compensation, unfair discipline or termination, lay-off and recall, and many others. For the cost of a coffee a day, you get a powerful team by your side, working to protect and build a brighter future for you and your loved ones.”
http://www.ufcw1000a.ca/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=35:union-dues&Itemid=337

No wonder we don’t hear from the union members about the costs of union dues. Union members don’t bear the costs, and to which in a public sector job, the taxpayer’s purse is funding the head unions to actively work against the public interest.

Maybe the unions should be reigned in?

What really puzzles me, are the teachers’ unions of the big guys in Ontario - their solutions are raising taxes to pay for the teachers’ salaries and their benefits. In this day and age, where day to day living expenses have sky-rocketed, personal debt has steadily increased, and access to education services has been cut.

Are we getting a fair exchange, when students’ access to education services are capped, narrowed criteria controls and other measures to control the access gates to keep students in the desks, the textbooks to received only a basic education that in the end impacts students’ futures?  Is it okay, a public education, and its quality depends on the size of the parents’ pocketbooks, to purchased the education services and products that the public education no longer delivers?

I suspect as much, because what I have observed are the parents who don’t have the excess cash, and are stuck with the public school down the street, are targeted by the school when they used their skills and abilities to tutored their children on what is no longer taught at the schools. This set of parents are quickly labeled and put back in their place to act and behaved as what low-income people according to the SES variables. The lower the income, the less capable the parents become.

Just had a conversation with another parent, who noted the bias towards parents in different ways, and she pointed it out, it seems to run according to income and job status. On the parent forums, from time to time, parents who are receiving income support from the government, will cite their horror stories of schools and the biases towards people who received government support as their income. They become the people who don’t know anything.

Not often talked about, the biases and belief systems of the educators and stakeholders of the public education system. Tossed in the teachers’ union web sites, a lot of it, in my opinion is bias showing parents in a negative light, when it comes to their skills and abilities. It leads to education policies that ultimately discriminates, in favour of the employees with education degrees.

Exactly, Wayne.  Many teachers are overpaid here, thanks to their strong unions, so they won’t leave either their profession, nor Ontario to accept a lesser paying job elsewhere, and perhaps they wouldn’t even find employment, since the market is flooded. 
As far as school choice creating a competitive environment, and therefore improving education for our children:  I lived in two countries in Asia and I can attest to the benefits of competition.  Children thrive in good schools.  I’ve never witnessed that here.  May I ask, Wayne, what personal experience do you have to make you adamantly oppose school choice? 
I can’t understand why—if so many teachers oppose the present system because it’s no good and children are suffering—that all of you wouldn’t happily grasp school choice (voucher/charter) in order to lesson the tight grip the monopoly holds. 
I’m sick of what’s going on over here.  I want children here to have the kind of excellent education that children get in Asia. 
When I see teachers objecting to choice, and, en force, walking off their jobs when so many of their charges desperately need help, their message to me is that they’re not for social justice, but only for themselves.

Thanks Wayne,
Not trying to stoke the fire here,I always ignore Doug:).

I feel that teachers go too far,whether union represented or not,they want too much,they don`t give enough and we give them a great deal.
The job has so many perks,it has so much security,so many holidays etc…all of that feels good if the teacher professional does the right thing for the students.
Right now,the province is broke,people have lost their full time jobs and can only get part time,they have no benefits-you guys are still wanting more.
You,meaning the collective,have gone too far,dinner party conversation has turned against you,parents who pay taxes for public education are stressed out.

Sorry,I believe in nobility,you all need a dose of it,when I read that high school teachers aren`t allowed to give reference letters to students for their university applications I want to puke-yes,a little nobility is just what you all need.This strike should NEVER have started,it would have ingratiated all of you to the public to not move forward.
The bad sentiment out there for the teachers and their union is well warranted,cry me a river!

Wayne - Teachers may indeed complained but it is all behind closed doors. What the public does not see, and never will, are teachers at the individual school going to bat for their students. The student waiting for two years for an assessment. The student needing reading intervention that goes beyond the teacher’s training and skills. Or how the collective group of teachers do not rise up and killed the rotten poor math curriculum in the K to 12, that has students counting with their fingers in high school, and teachers using colour fraction strips in grade 10. But why do the classroom teachers tolerate the troop of consultants, formerly classroom teachers acting as experts in math and other subject material, and their own qualification is an education degree.

Why does the collective group of teachers tolerate the poor quality of curriculum, that leads to poor outcomes of students?  I just heard another horror story of a student, and this poor kid needed help since grade 1. But he was passing, and therefore does not need help. How do teachers collectively tolerate the dumb-down curriculum and work given to students. How does a teacher look at themselves in the mirror, knowing full well the student in the applied program, who is averaging a 97 average, should be in the academic program, but he is not. The student is not in the academic program because of his low reading and writing skills, that were never remediated in the first place way back in grade 1, because he was passing due to the dumb-down work. How can a teacher look at themselves in the mirror, knowing full well the student doesn’t have much of a future in post-secondary, since an applied diploma will certainly mean a upgrading of math and writing skills, if the student want a better future than moving from one low-skilled job to another low-skilled job.

The differences between doctors and teachers, doctors will be concerned about quality and outcomes of their patients. Teachers don’t speak out on issues of quality and outcomes of their students. Private employers and their employees have the motivation on both sides to keep quality and outcomes as their main centerpiece. But in the public sector, and in the public education system, there is no such emphasis inside the schools.

Teachers and their union plays the victim card consistently. Portraying themselves as victims, helpless and powerless not to speak about education quality and outcomes of students. The teachers’ unions do it for one reason only, for the money at the expense of the students, their academic futures and their futures as adults.

” There are no magic bullets (the more you post on charter/voucher programs doesn’t make your false hopes and junk science any more valid) and respect teachers “

I tell you what junk science has done for the pocketbooks of the employees in the public education system? Bring in the real science, watch the top heavy administration disappeared, along with the unions’ playing card of portraying themselves as victims, and powerless to improved education quality and students’ future outcomes.

Bring in the real science of learning, along with the common sense of the realities - teacher unions will find it extremely difficult to go out on strike, using the fault lines of the education system, where education quality and outcomes are tossed under the bus, in favour of how hard-done the teachers are.

Jo-Anne,

I’m not asking you to ‘cry’ anything.    I’m asking you to think logically.  False assumptions c’td:

5)  Because we are public sector workers, we are morally required to take it on the chin for the public.  I worked at IBM.  There was more disgust there at company policies and the stupidity of their system than I have ever heard here about education.  Tell you what, parents, why don’t all of you stand up and publicly criticize your employers - and keep doing it until you get fired?  Then the teachers will stand up against the system and get fired.  Won’t things be so much better then?  At least we’ll all take comfort in knowing we stood up for our principles.

5 b)  Public institutions are the only place where mismanagement and bad policies are allowed to continue -> in private companies, the free market will weed them out.  Wrong - there are some badly run companies out there that do quite well in the marketplace - they sell their goods anyway.  The flip-side is also true - some private companies with perfectly excellent management and policies fail miserably.

6)  If teachers stand up against the system, they’ll bring about change.  Wrongo!  They’ll be fired - the boards will hire newer, cheaper teachers (given the last couple of comments made, you’d love that wouldn’t you? - still not feeling the respect ) and they will REQUIRE that the new teachers use the same resources and policies as those that were fired.  The new teachers will have no security and will gladly do what they are told.  Still not much better is it?  What about the ‘Zero Hero’, didn’t he bring about change?  Yes, but the policy was so obviously bad that the PUBLIC outcry was too much for them.  What are we talking about here?  Well, the flat earthers like Joe/Dean/Doug will simply spin their own tales, how did he put it?  “Nobody agrees mistakes were made”  Well Mr. Flat Earth, I’ve spoken to teachers from Thunder Bay to Cornwall - I guess we’re all nobodies (BTW: as a total aside, I wonder why none of you for two years have let him get away with his assertions about Canada’s literacy rates - do some research into Canada’s Adult literacy rates and you’ll see what I mean.)

Nancy,

False assumptions con’t:

7)  Teachers listen to the paid consultants.  Sure some do, but not all - many don’t.  They will politely nod and go back and do what works for them (flying under the radar)  Perhaps what Mr. Doug/Dean/Joe ought to have said is that ‘Not everyone agrees mistakes were made.’

8) You mention one horror story (note singular).  One horror story does not mean that the entire system is failing all students.  My three children have all received an excellent education in the public system.  From what I read in posts by teachers like Stephen Hurley, I have confidence that there are many wonderful teachers out there - horror stories aside.  You must understand that this tactic is commonly employed by propagandists - take one bad example and paint the rest that way.  It does deflect attention from the fact that your position is weak:  only 1 in 10 charters do better than traditional public schools (and then only minimally) while 90% do the same or worse.  But by God, those lazy, immoral, overpaid teachers and their self-interested, fat cat public sector unions are ruining our children’s educations - get the pitchforks out!  I’ll use Bev’s expression:  cry me a river.

We`re all aware here of Canada`s deteriorating literacy.
We`re all aware here of the lack of explicit research based intervention for struggling readers and students diagnosed with an L.D.
We`re all aware of the lack of moral based math education.
You still all want way too much(it`s never ending) as far as pay,benefits and lack of time after school to do what teachers do.
The unions you employ through your dues have a myopic view-time to take away all that power because you don`t know how to play ball.
You do know how to keep the public hostage though,I`ll give you that!

I didn’t say, cry me a river, Wayne
Your constant assumption that charter schools will not improve the educational system is so closed-minded that I feel almost certain that you have an agenda.  Why not give it a chance?  Are you happy with the complete lack of preparation you see today in your charges coming into your math class? 
You say it’s impossible to speak out against your employer; yet teachers will strike, and (sorry to bring up a sensitive issue) during the Harris government teachers walked out (and no one was fired) despite the fact that they weren’t in a legal position to do so.  During the walkout, both of my teenagers cried (my son was aiming for engineering and was naturally worried; my daughter, unfairly stressed).
What’s stopping teachers now from organizing and protesting bad teaching methods, zero policies—all the stuff detrimental to good teaching practices.  I hate to say it, but teachers’ actions speak louder than words, and most of the public is getting a very different message than what teachers would like us to believe.  Why don’t teachers stop?  Why don’t teachers take time and help children who desperately need help rather than walking off job, knowing that there’s no way that this lost time will be ever be made up?  Do they feel no pressure of getting their job done?

Recent comment from the T Star-pretty standard as far as response to school closings-worth a read Wayne-called general public opinion.
Lokie Lokie
@allswell You must be a teacher or related to a teacher because if you were a sane private sector worker you would be furious at how the teachers and their unions hold the schools and the kids hostage for their needs. I work 50 hour weeks and do not get half the benefit that teachers get and I am grateful to have a job.

“Because we are public sector workers, we are morally required to take it on the chin for the public”

Where does it state in the education legislation, that teachers are morally required to take it on the chin?

” If teachers stand up against the system, they’ll bring about change.  Wrongo!  They’ll be fired “

If so, is that why quality of education, the reading, writing and numeracy skills of students, and academic achievement are ignored because, a teacher will get fired if there voiced out loud, the low skills of their students, the lack of effective remediation and prevention for the 3 Rs, and the teachers’ skill set and training, that is a mismatch between the teachers and students’ learning needs to reach their potential.

” Teachers listen to the paid consultants.  Sure some do, but not all - many don’t.”

If so, why would the individual teachers and its collective tolerate the over-paid consultants, with questionable qualifications, to run rough-shod over their students’ academic and their future outcomes. And more so, when the teachers know the consultant is full of B.S., and a lot of extra busy work for the teachers.

As for the horror stories, all one has to do is to look at the labelled students, and see the outcomes of the students. More so, when teachers stand by the sidelines year in and year out, remaining silent in fear of losing their job. Another group of students are the students who enter first year post-secondary. The data has never been published, but it is estimated closed to 40 to 60 percent of first year students in post-secondary, need serious upgrading in basic skills that were either not taught or taught poorly in the K to 12 education system. The knowledge gap of students - the basic fundamentals that are needed to advance in learning.

As for teachers having confidence in the public education system, any set of employees and more so for the unionized employees will have confidence in their work place. The point is moot, and really does not have any place in the discussion, except questioning the teachers’ confidence in comparison to outcomes of students. How many students who have parents working in the public education system, had no trouble receiving education services beyond the inclusive classroom? Would love to know the number, because so far after staring at the published stats of my provinces, and the local, teacher parents have first dibs on the full slate of educational services beyond the inclusive classroom. Their children don’t get pulled out of programs as soon as there is improvement nor received the watered down programs. Further evidence, are the silence of public school teachers on outside organizations such as the LD, ADHD, and Autism criticizing the public education system and the education quality these students are receiving.

From the horse’s mouth - the ETFO president - the reason for striking: “Sam Hammond, president of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario, says it is with the intention of priming students for a changing world and valuing democratic rights in addition to the principles of education that teachers continue to bargain.”

Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/business/Ontario+elementary+students+behind+math+science/7684156/story.html#ixzz2Er8DayYe

My 17 year old, would have something to say about that - “Hah, a changing world and democratic rights would not do much good, if the student does not have a firm foundation to stand on, to correctly interpreted the patterns, threats of the changing world, defend their democratic rights, and be able to navigate in the world, acting on their own best interests.

Hammond is losing it, to put out the above reason for striking. Its all about the money, and the $150,000 of lost income that a teacher will lose because of the legislation.

In the same NP article - the EQAO chief assessment officer - “Mazzorato isn’t sure if the countries that are doing well in the areas of assessment where Ontario is lagging have a culture that supports math and science, but if they do, it certainly hints at the route the Ontario education system and curriculum should go.”

The Ontario K to 12 education is the head leader for dumbing down the STEM subjects,  where only 25 to 30 % of graduating high school students have the option of entering the STEM fields. Can’t make money in a culture that ensures all students received a quality education, to reach their full potential and the skills needed to navigate in the world. The billion dollar industry in upgrading, remediation and credentials in the adult world, is one piece of data that is an eye popper. Another piece of data, is the resentment of parents paying tutoring fees for their children, and in a lot of households it has become a monthly expense for 3 to 5 years. This is the stuff that the public education system no longer teaches.

Apparently it is no longer necessary to have our students learned such old knowledge. Its all about valuing democratic rights and the changing world. If so, parents have been taught a powerful lesson, on the fact that we no longer have to tolerate a poor education system, we can insert our rights demanding a good quality education system, and if not parents and their children should have the choice to go elsewhere. If it is left up to the teachers’ union, all parents would become the passive voice of the union, and in exchange accept the lower quality of education of their children, to pay for the raises and benefits of the collective, the public education system.

There is zero evidence of decline in literacy in Canada. You are all aware? What does that mean, 10 people with a personal, political, or financial axe to grind?

Because something is IC tax deductable does not mean it is public money.Tell it to the oul companies and charties.

Bev, you’re right - I meant Jo-Anne.  Sorry your names are so similar.  (Insert smiley here)

Bev, it is not an assumption - I’ve done the research.  Notice that Nancy said above:, “Bring in the real science of learning, along with the common sense of the realities ...”  The research I have posted over the last four months clearly shows no significant gains for charter school students.  That research comes from university professors and bank economists.  You refuse to read the literature but instead insert your own ‘reality’.  Bev, you get to decide what is best for your children - but you don’t get to decide what is the objective truth for the rest of the world.

Furthermore, you still ignore me when I say ‘go ahead’.  This is a teacher’s, administrators and unionists dream.  Ready for it?

False Assumptions c’td:

9)  The change to a charter school system is revenue neutral.  Poppycock.  You know, charter school proponents in the US were stung by the claim that if they saved any money, it was because they spent less on teachers and administration (ie: larger class sizes) than TPS (traditional public schools).  Well, they went out and did their own studies - and found that charter schools have LOWER class sizes and MORE administrators/pupil than TPS. Great, yes?  No.

Boy, did they shoot themselves in the foot.  Figured it out yet?  Think Doug/Joe/Dean.  What has he always said?  Lower class sizes improve student performance.  So now, charter school proponents have an even bigger problem - their studies showing increases in student performance are not very rigorous - so, is the increase due to the charter, or to the smaller class size?  They’ve just handed the victory to Joe/Doug/Dean.

When a voucher system is put in place, parents will have more say in what they want for their children—in other words, freedom of choice.  I as well as everyone else should be able to choose.  It will take years to show significant improvement in educational standards, because frankly many Canadians don’t know what a good education looks like, plus the establishment will not improve until they absolutely have to. 
Just be patient, Wayne, it’s all just at the starting gate, but eventually you’ll see that parental choice will improve education, simply because parents will be able to vote with their feet.
Honestly, I don’t know why you are so eager to say that something in its infant state is failing (friendly smiley here).

The charter schools in Alberta have a 2 to 4 year waiting list, Wayne. One of the charters does an excellent job in the traditional sense - the 3 Rs.

Once charters came on the scene in Alberta, the public education system started to provide alternative education choices, and improved education quality. Part of it has to do with how the education system is funded and organized. But it sure does a better job at tending to the students’ learning needs first, and not secondary in the other provinces.

Vouchers and other alternative choices is the way to go for such a vast land as Canada. Why should a parent be stuck in a rural school, seeing their children fall further behind? In parts of rural Canada, the in thing is regional schools, closing down the smaller schools. In my corner of the world, parents are one upset crowd, knowing full well their children will received a poorer quality of education, and 1 hour bus transportation.

Alternatives could be offered such as rural charter schools going to their own beat and tempo. Where some of the standard provincial curriculum would take a flying leap into oblivion, especially the non-core curriculum, that ends up costing reams of dollars without positive outcomes. Just imagine, what a charter school structure like the one in Alberta would do for the rural parts of Canada. Instead of regional schools, where kids are hanging from the rafters, no personal space, and its like going to zoo everyday, Plus no teacher remembers your name, unless you happen to be on his hit list, for not handing in an assignment. At least with smaller schools under 200, every teacher knows you and have watch you grow up. How many teachers can say that they know each and everyone of their students, their personalities,, and be able to described one quirk about them?

Even with smaller classes, the unions demanded, the union members still complained about the students but won’t do the one thing - voice out loud and in public to the policy wonks in the upper levels.

I have never run across any posts or comments discussing the so-called math experts who have taken over the math curriculum and spread its nastiness across Canada. I don’t know how any teacher spends his or her time on the videos, let alone attending a PD day listening to them. Time would be better spent on WISE math site, and the advice on the how-tos, so high students in grade 10 can actually be doing advance algebra with some ease, and not relearning long division and fractions. If not there, there is all kinds of mathematicians - the professor types would be glad to be of service., just like the two I talked to, giving me a list of the how-tos and what should be taught to mastery. I followed it to the ‘t’, and if my child was sitting in your class, she is not a miracle, but what can be done to ensure proficiency and deep understanding of advance mathematics.

My child is not an exception. Its what happens, when a child is given a firm and solid foundation in the 3 Rs. in the K to 8 system. The public education system is not willing to do it, and are more concern with equal portions and democratic rights. Equal portions of what? A further watering down to ensure equal portions? 

As Bev had stated, charter schools is in its infancy stage, as well as the other choices available. In Canada, the exception being in Alberta, there is very little choice alternative and what there is, under heavy criteria and control of the school boards. Parents have to literally packed up, and moved into the neighbourhoods of the schools. Hardly seem fail, that education quality goes by the postal code and income of parents.

What you don’t get Wayne, is that the public education system is infamous for ignoring the research, the trends, the changing values and patterns of society, and are intent to educate children according the needs of the adults who work in the education system. By doing so, the lost potential of students’ futures, coupled with the future doors of students being slammed shut starting at the primary grades, will continued along with low achievement, producing the identical dismal results.

But that is what the unions wants, so at contract time, they want more money for themselves, because they are so hard done by dealing with the difficulties of students, their weak knowledge base and skill sets. The union dances on the fault lines of the students, to extract higher pay and benefits even if it means the slamming of the future doors of their students.

Bev,

Couple of notes:

1) You didn’t read the Barrow study, did you?
2) The voucher idea has been around since the late 50’s.  Widespread implementation/experimentation began in the 90’s - so it’s been 15 - 20 years, and they are still behind - your estimate of one year is a tad overly-optimistic, wouldn’t you say?  (Little grin)  Whose going to help/compensate the 40% of the guinea pigs who received a poorer education?  Where’s the cry for that malpractice?
3)  Read some interesting articles on charter schools today.  Once advocate even admitted that sometimes the parent’s best choice for their child is a public school, especially when it comes to special needs kids.

“The voucher idea has been around since the late 50’s.  Widespread implementation/experimentation began in the 90’s - so it’s been 15 - 20 years, and they are still behind - your estimate of one year is a tad overly-optimistic, wouldn’t you say?  (Little grin)  Whose going to help/compensate the 40% of the guinea pigs who received a poorer education?  Where’s the cry for that malpractice?”

99 % of the law suits are against the public education system in both countries. Would love to know the number of law suits each board faces, especially the big board. They have some dandy ones suing for 8 million dollars on bullying.

Just wait Wayne, 2013 will come soon, and the new class action law suit for proving systemic discrimination. The guinea pigs as you referred to, the biggest guilty party is the public education system. Using students as their lab rats, for the new improved watered down programs of iffy effectiveness and high expense. My youngest has had a nightmare experience in a public education system, that did everything in their power to keep her as low achiever and fit for chopping fish heads as her career. Likewise, the identified LD students are faced with the type of discrimination and biases held by those in the public education system. Either the dumb-down work, or you can go to a private school, like what Mr. Moore was faced with.

Today, the silence is deafening within the public education system, and the public education system carries on treating the students as lab rats, anything will do, because there is not much we can do as teachers to remediate the SES variables, and after all few parents are qualified to teach, since they do not hold a teachers’ certificate, nor should they they tried to attempt to do the teaching at home.

I can pulled up one government site after another, all under the ministry of education, the blogs, and the worst of the Canadian web sites, where parents are treated with contempt, patronize, and treated as children. Run along, and followed the protocols , and don’t let the door slammed when you leave. As for the school board sites, I don’t know why they just don’t open a facebook account to save a few dollars, rather than a very unfriendly user site, that taxes the best of the parents, to locate the information. Even worse for parents trying to obtain knowledge on the most practical side, such as reading, writing and numeracy. For that parents have to move outside of the public education system to obtained, and find out in most cases, what was told to parents in the parent teacher interview, your child does not have problems, was another honey trap to lulled the parents into complacency. Meanwhile the child has serious reading and writing issues, that should be look after ASAP, but the school is determined to keep putting the kid in the maze once more again, and just maybe his reading and writing will kick in.

Sure it will, 3 years later, and two years behind in knowledge. The upshot, the kid will never catch up, and remained with low levels of reading and writing.

And Wayne that is the 40 percent and some will say 60 % sitting in the public high schools, using colored fraction strips, counting on their fingers, and teachers chasing them down for their assignments. Of course the chasing the students down for their assignments have been solved with the no-zero policies of questionable education theory behind it, where students can received full credit,for doing 1/2 of the work, and somehow managed to pull off a 80 grade average. What will be next? Handing out rainbow lollipops for the students, for the good deed of handing in an assignment on time? Poorly done, but handed in on time.

That last statement is a joke if you`re talking about L.D. that are served with dumbed down curriculum,educational assistants and no research based intervention.
Did you know that L.D. makes up 90% of special needs?No smiles here.

You’re right, Wayne, I haven’t read the Barrow study—it’s on my list, and what I shall look for when I read it is the background of the people doing the study, peer review, how long the parental choice systems have been in place and is it full parental choice, or is it capped as in Alberta.  If there is bias leaning towards favouring public schools, in other words:  it happens all the time with research. 
I’m suspicious because unions and educrats and so many teachers oppose freedom of choice, therefore I have to wonder why. 
As I’ve said many times, I had the privilege of living in two of the ‘Asian tiger’ countries where one shopped for schools, and there was simply no comparison to what we get here for our $$.  Competition/school choice was fierce, and the children benefitted:  they were thriving; here so many children suffer needlessly.  Obviously with first-hand experience, I want so much for our children here to thrive in school; not suffer.
I have two exams coming up with the RCM, and lots of music to get ready for Xmas, plus the usual, holiday preps—men don’t quite get it, because all they do is shop Xmas Eve (smiley).
haha—by the time I read the Barrow study, it’ll be forgotten about (smiley).

I had the opportunity to socialize/mingle with a young “twenty-something-worker-bee” for the PC party at a recent Christmas drop-in for the PC candidate in our central Etobicoke area, just this past weekend. (let’s call him Dave!) He is a policy analyst for the Party and says that he has a hand in contributing to an upcoming “white paper” on education that Hudak is launching soon. When asked about any variances in the way of vouchers or modified approaches to choice, he looked at me as if I was speaking in a foreign dialect. He had no idea and would check with Education critics’ office. I received an email from him last night saying that there were no such items in any education policy on the horizon that his Party is proposing. Tells me that Ontario is not ready yet?.

Joanne, I have been reading recently, on the alarm bells ringing, on the LD category, expanding the criteria to include all sorts of students, who don’t have issues with reading, writing and numeracy. Some would say, the students that have never been taught, category. What is more worrisome, is the removal of the category dyslexia and the sub-categories that fall under dyslexia, to the more general term, specific learning disability.

Under specific learning disability, no student will get the help that they needed, and all will end up with the dumb-down work, and lower education quality. The bonus for school budgets, the schools will offered the watered down remediation and intervention programs, to save dollars and avoid training and development programs for teachers and SE teachers,  in the science of learning and cognitive fields in the areas of reading, writing and numeracy.

In Canada, it is much more advance in reducing help for children in reading, writing, numeracy and other language difficulties. The focus is on the ESL students, and to which is now the latest category to join in SE. Whatever programs are offered for the ESL students, the LD students are placed in the ESL programs, to avoid the intensive programs that LD students really need to be successful students.

Steve,

The Tories have been badly burned proposing any types of privatization. They know it cost John Tory a possible election win. Very unpopular idea.

@ Steve:  P. E. Trudeau used to say that the public is usually ready for changes before the politicians are.
Needless to say, I’m disappointed that Ontario isn’t jumping on the voucher system bandwagon.

As soon as a proposal along these lines is made, it is characterized as ” public funding for private often religious schools.” by opponents.

This is a very unpopular concept.

I suspect the politicians are not ready for the PR nightmare dealing with parents who had the ‘hard to teach’ children, discovering the differences between the private school and the public school. More importantly, the low expectations that the public school system has for children, and doubly so for children with issues in the 3 Rs.

I just came off the political blogs, if there was a time to moved on vouchers and charter schools, the public is eager considering their distaste for public sector unions, and a lot of it is directed at the teachers’ unions, and in part the school boards. I get my laughter of the day reading the comments, and some of them are so funny. Better than sitting down watching a sitcom.