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SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
Happy Hallowe’en
Be sure to wear something equally scary tonight!
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
How low can we go?
Ontario's testing body has just released the latest grade 9 math scores, but in a delightful display of cooperation among two members of the Ontario education cartel (the testing body and the high school teachers' union), it has not been possible to release provincial averages due to teacher strikes. As a result, it is unknown whether math achievement is down again this year. However, a few enterprising reporters at various local newspapers did the math for their local school boards and in most cases local math achievement had dropped. Brantford Waterloo Muskoka Near North Windsor
This suggests that the slide in math scores in Ontario is continuing.
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
Thursday at the Movies (Opposition to School Choice)
The American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for the Separation of Church and State have filed a lawsuit against Nevada's new universal school choice program. In this 15-minute clip, Bob Bowden argues (very entertainingly) that the lawsuit should fail. And, as Bob points out, it's really kind of weird that the ACLU and the AUSCC should be opposed to school choice in the first place, as their constituents are surely the disadvantaged population Nevada's school choice program is helping the most. However, as Bob also points out, "the next time someone tells you that 'we' should limit someone else's freedom... take a look at which multi-million-dollar establishment cartel their efforts might be protecting".
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
If we really care about disadvantaged children, we will hold out for programs that actually work
The primary goal of most education reformers, and this certainly includes me, is to make it possible for ALL children - including disadvantaged children - to succeed in school. And it seems highly probable that any program that will accomplish this will be administered in children's early years.
That is why I am constantly on the lookout for programs that work with young disadvantaged children. This write-up outlines the difficulties: most interventions don't work very well - and it goes on to describe a pre-school attempt in Tennessee that actually led to worse outcomes for the children. And that is more or less what the two evaluations of Ontario's all-day junior kindergarten found.
Click here to learn about one of the few compensatory programs that actually work.
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
Are the teachers’ unions going to be accomplices to parental crimes?
GUEST BLOG BY A PARENT IN THE HALTON CATHOLIC BOARD
This letter went out to all parents this year. Of most interest to me is the sentence "The Ontario Education Act states that every child between the ages of 6 and 18 years is required to attend school every day from the first school day in September until the last school day in June".
Does it say anywhere in the Act that parents are excused from this obligation in the event of a teachers' strike? How ironic that teachers in carrying out rotating strikes are potentially going to force parents to break the law.
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
The Ontario government’s education quasi-monopoly is not benefiting children
GUEST BLOG BY SARAH WARRY-POLJANSKI, SQE DIRECTOR
It's time the government started to work in our best interest and reform the education system.
For too often, students, parents and taxpayers are left in the cold or given a false sense of "being involved" when it comes to issues such as union disputes, curriculum changes, and matters of education spending.
In the past few years alone, the children in Hamilton's Ward 7 have witnessed two work-to-rule job actions and lost three elementary schools during the latest Accommodation Review Committee decisions. Many of them will not be able to attend the new high school after losing Hill Park School.
As taxpayers, you and I have little, if any, say or ability to change this.
Now factor in recent issues such as plummeting literacy scores, a terrible math curriculum, and issues regarding religious freedom for some religious and ethnic groups, and you'll see it's time the government stopped its quasi-monopoly-style education system.
It's time to bring funding back to the municipal level, allow charter schools, and give tax vouchers to parents to use toward private school tuition.
We need to offer other options to parents so they can choose the best education for their child - an education based on their child's needs, wants, and abilities!
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
Sunday at the Movies (Myths about parenting)
This TED talk is a very watchable discussion of a few hard truths about parenting.
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
SQE Calls for Minister of Education Liz Sandals to Resign
GUEST BLOG BY MADDIE DI MUCCIO, PRESIDENT OF THE SOCIETY FOR QUALITY EDUCATION
The Province of Ontario is the most indebted sub-sovereign borrower on the planet. Ontario's population is only a third the size of California's, but our debt load is twice theirs.
Debt is the main reason why Ontario Hydro is being sold off, nurses are being laid off, and schools are being closed down.
Ontario does not have money to throw around willy-nilly.
Knowing the dire straits of our public debt makes the news that the Ontario government has given $3,741,000 to teachers unions since 2008 so difficult to swallow. This unaccounted money was given to cover the costs associated with labour negotiations, apparently to pay for things like pizza and overnight accommodations.
We already know that $1,000,000 of this amount was taken from a fund for support to troubled students to help them graduate high school. We don't have any accounting where the remaining $2,741,000 was taken from.
Undoubtedly, students have suffered.
We also know that the teachers' unions are heavy contributors to the Working Families Coalition, a group that spent millions on televisions ads against the opponents of the Ontario Liberals.
Clearly, the Ontario Liberals learned nothing from the experiences of their federal counterparts and their imbroglio with the Sponsorship Scandal. Public funds are paid to unions, which in turn use money to fund election-related ads to support the Liberal Party.
The stench of this arrangement is unbearable to students and parents who are dealing with underfunding, program cuts, and school closures at our government run schools. That is to say nothing of extracurricular program withdrawals, dirty washrooms and hallways, piles of accumulating garbage, and no after-hours parent-teacher interviews as a result of current work-to-rule job action.
The Society for Quality Education stands with the parents and students. Up to this time, we have resisted in joining in the chorus calling for Education Minister Liz Sandals to step down.
Yet when government-run schools are falling into disarray and our public education funds are being diverted from at-risk students to pay for union pizzas, we have to say, "Enough is enough".
The Education Minister has been found using her office to further the political goals of the Liberal Party at great harm to Ontario's students. It is time for Liz Sandals to go.
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
What it’s all about
These teachers teach to end inequality and they have the T-shirts to prove it. A picture's worth a thousand words. more
SCHOOL FOR THOUGHT
The Ugly Truth About Teacher Negotiations is Surfacing in Ontario
Further to yesterday's blog about the Ontario government's secret deal with the high school teachers, click here for a follow-up article with more details about how the government managed to give the province's teachers a raise without spending additional money - but then wouldn't reveal what got cut. Now The Globe and Mail has a copy of the deal with the Catholic teachers' union (marked "highly confidential" - which begs the question of precisely why would a deal with public servants be confidential), and the details aren't pretty. We always knew the kids would be thrown under the school bus, and now we see how.
The most interesting part of the article is the 310 comments, and counting. Now, this is in The Globe and Mail whose readers tend to have no particular political bias. I didn't find one non-scathing comment. To a man, readers are shocked and appalled, and some of their comments are actually pretty funny - like the one about Liz Scandals.