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Doug Ford and Stephen Lecce’s sad state of affairs

Charlemagne

Well-known member
Jul 19, 2017
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Doug Ford and Stephen Lecce’s sad state of affairs

Michael Coren: $60 a day won’t stop parents—or teachers—from wanting better from the Ontario governmentby Michael Coren

Jan 22, 2020

It was largely inevitable that there would be a conflict between Doug Ford’s Ontario government and the province’s teachers. It happened under former Tory Premier Mike Harris, and it’s happened with various right-wing administrations in other provinces. Put simply, teachers are not popular with conservatives, and their unions have been used as scapegoats by conservative governments for decades.

Teachers are considered liberal, and condemned for having long vacations and leaving work at 4 p.m.. The truth, of course, is profoundly different. Because they receive payment for the summer, teachers are paid less for the rest of the year; and their working days certainly do not begin when students arrive at school or end when they leave. Even so, the optics are perfect for the political right, and nobody plays optics and sound bites with such relish as Doug Ford.

Which is why he and his Education Minister Stephen Lecce have offered a subsidy of up to $60 per day to compensate parents for the cost of childcare during the numerous strikes that are taking—or are about to—take place. Such is teachers’ anger at the government’s refusal to listen to their demands that this strike now includes almost every major teachers’ union in Ontario.

The compensation plan is layered and organized, and to the cynic it looks like it may have been organized well in advance of these strikes. Children who are six and younger who attend school-based childcare will receive $60 a day; those in kindergarten, $40 per day; students in grade one to grade seven are to be given $25 per day; and students with special needs $40 per day.

These are arbitrary sums, but what characterizes them is their clear intention: to present the government as caring and under siege, and unions as being hard and selfish. Stephen Lecce made that entirely obvious when he said “While teacher unions are creating hardships for students and families, our government is taking proactive steps to ensure students remain cared for and families supported.” Quite so.

The reality is a little different. Public education is terribly under-funded, the Ford government appears to be far from committed to its long-term health, and this dispute is more about the future of schools than the salaries of teachers. As such, it’s particularly irksome that the government rejects the unions’ demand for more money to be invested into public education, but is willing to pay up to $48 million a day to compensate parents! That is money that could be invested directly into the education system.

It’s also a clear attempt to bribe parents so as to remove pressure on the government, and to divide them in what seems to be their overwhelming support for striking teachers. Parents have walked picket lines and protests along with teachers to show just how supportive they are. That is something that the government doesn’t want to see on the province’s television screens.

Equally worrying, it’s a quite blatant interference in the time-honoured concept of free collective bargaining, a basic right that conservatives with their belief in the free market should support rather than oppose. Of course people suffer in such an action (teachers as well as students and parents), but as regrettable as this may be, the whole point of withdrawing labour is that it’s the only weapon a workforce has, and to be effective it has to exert pressure. If the government can marginalize teachers and give financial inducements to parents, it will make it more possible for Doug Ford and his people to refuse to negotiate in good faith, and perhaps reach a reasonable compromise, which is the only long-term solution to all of this.

The government wants to increase class sizes, wants children to take more online courses, and wants to introduce aspects of the private sector into that online teaching. And it is now willing to spend millions of dollars not to help parents but to try to defeat unions. That’s a deeply sad state of affairs.

The last place teachers wants to be in the middle of an Ontario winter, or any other time for that matter, is demonstrating outside of schools. It’s unlikely that this latest Doug Ford gimmick will be successful, but it goes to the heart of the problem, and no bribe can change that inescapable conclusion. Hey, Premier, leave those parents alone.

https://www.macleans.ca/opinion/doug-ford-and-stephen-lecces-sad-state-of-affairs/
 

Frankfooter

dangling member
Apr 10, 2015
79,741
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Wonder how many days Ford would be willing to pay that when a strike starts for real?
 

Boober69

Well-known member
Feb 23, 2012
6,722
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Wonder how many days Ford would be willing to pay that when a strike starts for real?
Hopefully, as many as it takes.
Better question...How many days will teachers keep kids out of school to serve their own purpose?
 

Frankfooter

dangling member
Apr 10, 2015
79,741
17,568
113
Hopefully, as many as it takes.
Better question...How many days will teachers keep kids out of school to serve their own purpose?
Doug Ford wants to cut teachers and replace them with online courses.
That's not good for students.
 

Boober69

Well-known member
Feb 23, 2012
6,722
263
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The same right wing language. Being held hostage = lawfully striking. Bullshit.
Then why don't they strike during the summer months when the students are not in school?
If you just want to look at teachers striking without considering the damage it's doing to students a different way then that's your opinion. Do you have a better term for "hostage" or "bargaining chip" in this case?
 

Boober69

Well-known member
Feb 23, 2012
6,722
263
83
Doug Ford wants to cut teachers and replace them with online courses.
That's not good for students.
It's actually better for students. Provides more options for accessibility, flexibility and proven to be successful. Get out of the stone ages.
 

Dutch Oven

Well-known member
Feb 12, 2019
6,804
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The problem is in the laws:

1. If headcount school funding were available to any school board meeting minimum government standards for curriculum, parents would be able to choose to put their kids into school systems where there would be no, or less, potential for disruptions due to labour disputes. Labour disputes wouldn't last very long if they created the prospect for teaching jobs to be lost to competitor Boards of Education.

2. The classic model of labour relations where the economic pressures of labour disputes force the parties towards a compromise doesn't work when the union has a monopoly on the relevant labour and the employer doesn't have direct financial interest in the outcome of bargaining, only political interests.

In short, government finally figured out that you can't afford to have certain essential services on strike, but hasn't figured out that education is one of those services. More importantly, government has yet to figure out that labour relations law designed for the private sector doesn't serve the public interest in the public sector.
 

apoptygma

Well-known member
Dec 31, 2017
3,043
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I should have said it’s actually much better for students, especially those that live far and thrive doing independent learning.
And think of the environmental benefits!
And you no doubt can link to studies that prove these hypotheses of yours.

What about the students that have trouble concentrating or live in an environment that isn't conducive to quiet and concentration?
For sure dumbo dofo has considered mitigation strategies, no?
 

Charlemagne

Well-known member
Jul 19, 2017
15,451
2,483
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It's actually better for students. Provides more options for accessibility, flexibility and proven to be successful. Get out of the stone ages.
Toronto’s Experiment With Online Learning Created Problems for Students. But Doug Ford Thinks It’s a Brilliant Idea.

Academic experts say the Toronto District School Board's experience with eLearning revealed big problems for students

https://pressprogress.ca/torontos-experiment-with-online-learning-created-problems-for-students-but-doug-ford-thinks-its-a-brilliant-idea/
 

Insidious Von

My head is my home
Sep 12, 2007
38,089
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E-Learning would become an economic sinkhole, drop out rates would rise.

School is a drudgery that children learn to persevere through. Teachers spend more time coaching and problem solving than they do teaching. The good teacher's stay on after class and help students with problems on homework, one on one consultation is a big part of getting kids to develop. However, teachers have to set a standard. Someone like The Greener cannot be protected and allowed to abuse kids just to fatten his/her pension. There is some degree of accountability that teachers have to accept.
 
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