Opinion

Where do teachers think province gets its funding money?

The way they go on, it's difficult to believe they know it comes from the people and not from another planet.

MORRIS DALLA COSTA
London Free Press

September. Another school year.

Books. Education. A possible strike by elementary school teachers. An election in which the Ontario Public School Federation (OPSTF) will take an active role in seeing certain candidates get elected.

Here we go. Teacher bashing again.

Remember the No. 1 rule. Do not, absolutely do not, say anything that could be construed as criticism of the following: teachers, the education system, the amount of money wasted in the education system, salaries, benefits or the quality of education. Any mention of the preceding and that's called teacher bashing.

HOOK, LINE AND SINKER: It's a sensitive point. We, the taxpayers of course, are not supposed to be sensitive. We are to swallow hook, line and sinker, every bill of goods sold us by teachers' unions. There's nothing wrong with the education system that more teachers and more money won't fix.

The OPSTF is preparing big time for the upcoming election. They will spend up to $120.000 as part of a campaign against candidates supported by tax revolt groups and to ensure the election of candidates who will rubber stamp what the union wants.

You see, tax revolt groups have targeted education as one area which must hold the line when it comes to increases. School boards have been notorious in the past for ignoring fiscal responsibility, barging ahead with whatever they feel they need financially, and to hell with restraint.

And most of the time they get what they want, at one level or another, because if you mess with education, you're labelled an ignoramus.

Tax revolt groups have singled out teachers as their main target. They are unhappy with teachers' salaries and the number of teachers being hired.

POLICING THE SYSTEM: The tax revolt groups and the candidates they back should concentrate their energies on ensuring the system does not get out of hand.

They should concentrate on making the system more productive. They should look at at a year-round school system; less time off for teacher and student, a streamlining of the administration, spending more money at the classroom level. There could be fewer out-of-town meetings, conferences, meet-thy-neighbor barbecues and the like.

Which brings us to the union. The campaign it is spearheading includes the distribution of pamphlets to all teachers in which the union encourages them to "protect your schools from becoming the target of a tax revolt. Elect trustees who oppose cutbacks and understand the politics of education funding."

Whose interests are they protecting?

The union, naively, differentiates between local taxpayers and money coming from the provincial government. The union wants to pressure the provincial government to increase its share of education funding. Where does the union think that money's coming from? Another province, another country, another planet?

Bob Metz, leader of the Freedom Party of Ontario, says, "if taxpayers can't afford the education system they have, they simply won't have it for long."

How right he is. And it's time everyone realized that.

MOBITS: One in five students in the Catholic secondary system in Ontario is housed in a portable classroom. That figure is about one in four in London and Middlesex County. Maybe they can put a classroom in that ostentatious, mall-like front lobby in the new John Paul II high school. There's certainly room for it. Do you wonder how much the foyer cost to build and whether the space could have been put to better use?

Morris Dalla Costa's column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

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Page last updated on April 28, 2002