Although not living in Ontario at the moment, I came across the PC and NDP education policies.

The NDP - A New Democrat government would earmark $60 million annually to maintain and renovate schools on the chopping block so they could continue to operate, while allowing non-profit and community groups to take advantage of unused space, Horwath said.
Some buildings could be repurposed altogether if that’s what best serves residents, she said.
http://o.canada.com/news/ndp-promises-60m-a-year-to-renovate-repurpose-aging-ontario-schools

And the PC platform - http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-votes-2014/ontario-pc-platform-sees-larger-class-sizes-cancels-teacher-pay-hikes-1.2642657

Judge for yourself, but either way as I see it the education system will continue to remained inefficient as centralization increases to supposedly cut costs. Closure of schools will continue unabated even imposing the community school model to allow community and non-profit groups to become part of the school. Might be fine in the cities and prosperous smaller communities with a healthy tax base to managed the changes, but since the vast majority of school closures are taking place in more rural locations of declining population and loss of jobs, requires a great deal more in creative solutions, under governments of what ever stripe that continues to used the centralized model to keep the access doors locked and controlled for resources and who will or will not get access to government services. By moving government services further away from communities in areas of education and health, the goal is to control the traffic flow to the services and what types of services are offered.

Suffice to say, I am not at all impressed with the NDP or the PC education policy since it will do nothing to alleviate the unique conditions and problems facing a school, a school board or a community that differ from the norm, where centralization policies insist on all to become the norm. As in the same way, inclusive policies insists on the individual students to adapt to the norm while being accommodated but the access doors to education services beyond the inclusive classroom are locked to prevent students truly realizing their academic potential, by receiving corrective remediation in the 3 Rs, so the students can truly participate in the inclusive classroom, without dumbing down the education of the students.

As for the Liberal education policy, they have not announced any. However, what I stated also applies to the Liberal government.

To “Wynne the Lottery”, “Tim Hudak”, and… ummm… the “Rest Of The Candidates”,

Please respond with a simple Yes or No. It requires no further elaboration or pontification.

If elected, will you commit to one simple addition to the public school curriculum? Will you commit to forcing the education establishment to immediately begin teaching our grade school children TO SIGN THEIR NAME?

Now what I’m really asking you is to commit to teaching them how to WRITE. Oops, I mean teaching them “cursive”.

This is not a joke.

For those who do not currently have kids in the Ontario education system this may seem outlandish and unbelievable. Let me assure you it is not. It is reality. At least in the Sault Ste. Marie district (which includes a large portion of Northeastern Ontario schools), and I suspect most of the province, “cursive” (i.e. hand writing) is NO LONGER taught to our kids.

My kids are very good students, they attend school regularly, we pay a mountain of taxes, and I dole out several hundred dollars extra per month (after-tax dollars out of my own pocket) for private Kumon lessons which at least teaches them to read and write and perform mathematics at a suitable level. But they are NOT taught how to write, and as a result they are unable to sign their name.

This may seem to be a silly point to pick on when the education system has so many other glaring deficiencies. In one sense it is. On the other hand, I believe that a very simple, straight forward issue is one that the legion of education consultants, administrators, union executives, and teachers might be able to wrap their minds around without excessive effort, or heaven forbid, without the need to organize any “extra-curricular” meetings after 3:00 pm.

And if you think about it for a minute it is actually pretty important. I for one, completely acknowledge that in ten years time we may very well never have the need to write, or even print with pen and paper ever again. There will probably even be a digital substitute for the written signature that is widely accepted in all aspects of our lives.

In the meantime, WHAT EXACTLY ARE OUR KIDS SUPPOSED TO DO WHEN THEY NEED TO SIGN THEIR FIRST JOB OFFER, OPEN THEIR OWN BANK ACCOUNT, OR SIGN THEIR APPLICATION PAPERS FOR UNIVERSITY?! How will they read and interpret important historical and legal documents well after you and I are no longer around?

In my case, my twelve year old son “signed up” for his hunting course (yes we do that sort of thing in Northern Ontario, and it requires a formal course and a stack of papers to be signed). It required HIM to sign the papers in several places. He did not know how!

I TOLD HIM TO PUT AN “X”, JUST LIKE THE MASSES OF UNEDUCATED PEASANTS USED TO DO 300 YEARS AGO.

Of course, since then he has developed his own pseudo semi-printed “signature”, but the point remains. He, nor the rest of the ten thousand grade school kids in his district have any idea how to read or write anything that is written (many of them can’t even read printed text, but that’s a topic for another day).

Who in their right mind develops these policies and “improved” educational concepts? How can these highly paid, highly pensioned “educators” be allowed to produce such mind numbing curriculum and poor results? What kind of union allows our kids to be so handicapped before they even reach the age of majority?

Public education policy, as with healthcare and most other government policy, is based upon what will attract votes to the party in power. Unlike most other jurisdictions, education and healthcare touch the lives of almost every voter. That is the reason both have been so “democratized” or, in other words, reduced to the lowest common denominator. Education policy has nothing to do with what might be best for the future of the children, the economy or the province. As an employer, I see much of the product of the Ontario education system. I see people with graduate degrees in English who cannot compose a paragraph that is free of grammatical, syntactical or spelling errors, or improper usage. Many of the university graduates I interview for positions in our company are not even university material. They do not have enquiring minds, lack analytical and critical thinking skills, and most tell me they do not read for pleasure. Yet, both Premier Wynne and former Premier McGuinty have stated goals to enable every young person to attend university, should they so wish. Why? To win votes, they play to the base of the electorate. Their politically-driven minds never connect the dots between the poor quality of most university graduates and the inability of many in that cohort to find employment or keep a job. When everyone can get a university education, no one gets a university education. It is contrary to the prime interest of politicians to improve the quality of education. That is the reason they tinker with bricks and mortar and community access in the education system.

I guess they call it democracy.  Do you have some other system in mind? People fought and died for THIS system.

People do not fight and died for government services. Nor fight for the concept of democracy in the various pure and mutant forms. What people will fight for is to end the negative outcomes of whatever forces that are inflicting the negative outcomes. It is pure foolishness on your part to compared the public education system to a democracy. Government services are just that, services. And has nothing to do with the concept democracy, and for you to raise it, is just pure propaganda on your part.

As Joan has stated, “Public education policy, as with healthcare and most other government policy, is based upon what will attract votes to the party in power. Unlike most other jurisdictions, education and healthcare touch the lives of almost every voter. That is the reason both have been so “democratized” or, in other words, reduced to the lowest common denominator. Education policy has nothing to do with what might be best for the future of the children, the economy or the province.”

The public education model is no more democratic than the tyrant leader in another country. Outcomes of students and for that matter society don’t matter to the collective crew working in the K to 12 system. The processes put in place for the public, parents and students in the K to 12, are processes of control and to managed the activities of the public, parents and students. If one should object, the processes and protocols are rigged to put the parent, or a member of the public or a student in their place. Tyranny of the petty bureaucratic educators prevents all students from ever reaching their academic potential.

Nothing democratic about the K to 12 establishment seeking out rent seeking options as their only tools to put the thumb screws upon the students. In the K to 12, it starts at grade one and doesn’t stop until the K to 12 establishment kicks the students out of grade 12, secured in the K to 12 rent-seeking activities that the students now faced the barriers of lies constructed by the petty educators for their self-serving interests. The newest based on a lie that is a special barrier for children with formal diagnostic disabilities related to the education of the students. One only needs one set of documents to entered a post-secondary institute and to take avail of any federal and provincial aid. Not at all true. The LD student usually needs at least three assessments done over the years in order to the pass the gatekeepers of the federal government to take advantage of the grants. Ditto for the gatekeepers at the post-secondary institute that sometimes need the minimum of 2 assessments but three is their target, to keep in sync with the federal government. The big lie, is telling parents and students alike all they need is one assessment…......and than they find out the hard way they can’t access special services.

So what is rent-seeking? “Rent-seeking behavior
The expenditure of resources in order to bring about an uncompensated transfer of goods or services from another person or persons to one’s self as the result of a “favorable” decision on some public policy. The term seems to have been coined (or at least popularized in contemporary political economy) by the economist Gordon Tullock. Examples of rent-seeking behavior would include all of the various ways by which individuals or groups lobby government for taxing, spending and regulatory policies that confer financial benefits or other special advantages upon them at the expense of the taxpayers or of consumers or of other groups or individuals with which the beneficiaries may be in economic competition.”  http://www.auburn.edu/~johnspm/gloss/rent-seeking_behavior

And here - “The root of the problem can be summarized in three terms:  (1) teachers’ unions, (2) education schools, and (3) the federal government. Each of these has become its own rent-seeking and bureaucratic institution, following a dynamic, well described by Public Choice Economics, that serves themselves as institutions but bears little relation to what most people would think of as the purposes of education, let alone public education. The most disturbing feature of this dynamic is the extent to which ignorance promotes the control and purposes of the educational establishment better than the successful dissemination of knowledge would.” http://www.friesian.com/public.htm

No Doug, the K to 12 education is just a collective group of petty bureaucratic educators, who just so happens to have their authority legally legislated in order to carry out their rent-seeking activities at the expense of the children’s education and by extension at the expense of society. Democracy does not even figure into the K to 12 education, because the first law that was put into place, was the compulsory school laws…...........it all started to go downhill and now the K to 12 education system is just a petty institution of tyranny to insert control and authority over all things in education.

Joan is complaining that we arrive at decisions Using democratic systems.  There is an obligation on people who do not like democratic decision making to show us a better way. My father and grandfather risked their lives fighting for DEMOCRACY. .

I’d like to see someone stay on topic and ask local candidates “pointed questions” about healthcare or education.

I posted one such concise, pointed question with the hope that something so simple might have a remote chance of intelligent consideration. I even thought that bureaucratic trolls and hard core “educators” might have the necessary capacity to engage appropriately.

It seems my expectations may have been too high.