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(In 2012 the Ontario English Catholic Teacher's Association, the union for all elementary and secondary Catholic teachers in Ontario, negotiated a collective bargaining agreement with the Ontario government for a two-year agreement. The union wanted hiring of the most experienced and qualified teachers since they had hundreds of experienced teachers who were stuck in substitute teaching and since many school boards were not even advertising contract or full-time, permanent teaching positions, they were just giving them to the children of people in administration, and those substitute teachers were going bankrupt and they were really pushing their union to get an agreement so they could at least get contract positions which would increase their salaries significantly. The boards made an agreement but they almost took their first-born to consent to hiring experienced, qualified teachers. The boards and the Province of Ontario demanded and got: no strike for two years; no raises for two years; no payout of banked, unused sick days at retirement up to a maximum of 200 sick days; 10 out of 20 sick days surrendered; death benefits; and something else I can't remember. OECTA signed and called it a major victory. ETFO, elementary public teachers union, refused to sign it. OSSTF, public secondary teacher's union, refused to sign it. After a few months of quiet discussion the unions all signed it. By the way it turned out there was an interview involved and you had to get a satisfactory agreement based on your interview to make it onto a roster from which the principals would choose who got the contracts. My question is: why was the province and why were the school boards so opposed to hiring the more experienced, more qualified teachers? It is called regulation 274/12. There was so much family hiring in school boards a dispute made the front page of the Windsor Star. A full-time teacher in Toronto said family hiring is just as bad in the public boards but they are better at keeping a lid on it. Don't become a teacher in Ontario unless you have family in a full-time position. In my opinion, you'll end up in substitute teaching for years, the full-timers will not support you, it's all your fault if anything goes wrong, they might let you have special ed., it will probably drive you out within five years and you have to have five years of university to qualify for the honour.)
(A former substitute teacher with Toronto Catholic tells me he was talking to an elderly former neighbour. He told the neighbour that he hit his back at work several years ago. He was in pain for three days and he finally gave in and went to a chiropractor. The doctor helped him and it took away the pain. His co-worker told him he'd better report it to the supervisor in case it becomes a reoccurring problem. The worker went in to the supervisor and told him what happened to cause the injury. He said he wanted to report it to the Worker's Safety Insurance Board. The supervisor made a clear disapproving look and he asked him if he was sure that he wanted to do that. The worker had second thoughts and he said that he was feeling fine now so he thought he didn't need to report it. It was a reoccurring back-ache over the years but he has been able to work with it. The elderly neighbour told him it's a good thing he didn't report it because he would never work again. He asked the neighbour what he meant. The neighbour said that his name would have ended up on the secret list of anyone in Ontario who ever had an injury at work. He raised his hand to his mouth and placed a finger to his mouth saying, "Sh." The elderly neighbour was a machinist and then a supervisor at a factory that manufactured nuts and bolts and screws and washers.)
https://www.thestar.com/yourtoronto/education/2019/03/17/ontarios-plan-to-raise-class-sizes-
will-lead-to-loss-of-800-public-high-school-teaching-jobs-in-toronto-tdsb-document-shows.html
Ontario’s plan to raise class sizes will lead to loss of 800 public high school teaching
jobs in Toronto, TDSB document shows
By Paul Hunter Feature Writer
Sun., March 17, 2019
The Ontario government’s blueprint to increase class sizes will mean the loss of approximately
800 public high school teaching positions in Toronto, according to a TDSB document obtained
by the Star.
It’s a number that, according to a local teachers union executive, would decimate the city’s
secondary school system
Education Minister Lisa Thompson unveiled changes to Ontario’s education system Friday,
including a back-to-basics math curriculum.
Education Minister Lisa Thompson unveiled changes to Ontario’s education system Friday,
including a back-to-basics math curriculum. (CHRIS YOUNG / THE CANADIAN PRESS)
“No government cuts what amounts to close to 20 per cent of the expert classroom staff
from programming and at the same time says that they are doing their best to help students
succeeed,” said Leslie Wolfe, head of the Toronto local of the Ontario Secondary School
Teachers’ Federation.
“This, to me, is a decimation. They are in the process of manufacturing a crisis in publicly
funded education at the high school level.”
The plan, announced by Education Minister Lisa Thompson on Friday, will bump up the number of
students in each class from Grade 4 to Grade 12. At the secondary level, the average class
size will grow to 28 from 22. In the lower grades, an average of one student will be added
to each class.
The Education Ministry is still holding consultations with families, staff and school boards
but Friday’s announcement was to provide school boards with information to build their budgets
and staffing models.
Read more:
Ford government announces hikes to high school class sizes, but no changes to kindergarten
Opinion | Edward Keenan: Maybe it’s actually a good thing if I don’t understand my kids’ homework
The Toronto District School Board, in a document distributed to school trustees, did the basic math
on the announced changes to gauge the impact on how many teachers will be lost. It calculated that
there will be 216 fewer teachers in Grade 4 to Grade 8 in addition to the 800 at the secondary level.
Approximately another 82 high school positions will be gone with the reduction in funding for
secondary programs.
In protest, classroom teachers began an online campaign over the weekend encouraging each other to
wear black on Monday as a symbolic form of resistence.
More positions will also be lost starting in 2020-21 when students are required to take four of
their their 30 high school credits, one per year, through online learning. Wolfe said “it’s not
catastrophizing” to suggest that will mean 20 per cent of her federation’s almost 5,000 members
will ultimately be elimated under the government plan.
The reductions will take place over four years. Thompson said the changes will come through
retirements, resignations and other attrition. No teacher will lose their job due to the class-size
strategy, she said.
Still, that is a significant number of positions removed from the system, sparking concerns among
educators that smaller, specialized classes will have to be chopped and there will be less
opportunity for students.
TDSB chair Robin Pilkey said the numbers in the TDSB document are extremely preliminary and a
clearer indication of the impact of the government’s plan will come this week when the board does
staffing allocation for the next school year.
“We know it’s going to be significant,” she said. “We are concerned because we want to make sure
kids get as much opportunity as possible. Fewer teachers means fewer different types of classes.
The government has spent a lot of time talking about preparing kids for the future ... (but) if
there are fewer teachers, there’ll be larger classes and less opportunity — fewer courses, I
think, is kind of the logical conclusion. That’s going to be not great for kids who are trying
to figure out what to do with their future.”
To put the loss of teaching positions in perspective, Wolfe said there are approximately 100
secondary schools in Toronto and so that would mean an average of eight educators gone from each
school. Obviously, small schools wouldn’t be losing eight teachers but it offers an idea.
“What I really want to underscore,” she said, “is that while no one may be losing a job, people
need to understand that’s 800 fewer adults in our schools. It’s not about job loss, it’s about
the reduction and expertise in our schools. And it’s about the potential loss of programs that run
with smaller class sizes that serve students who need those smaller class sizes.”
Under the Ontario government’s proposal, which would save about $250 million in the first of year
of a four-year plan, class sizes from kindergarten to Grade 3 would maintain their current caps.
Thompson’s announcement Friday also included a back-to-basics math curriculum, a ban on cellphones
in classrooms for noneducational purposes and revisions to the health and sex-ed curriculum,
including clear provisions for opting out and the opportunity for families to use the eduational
materials online to teach the subject at home.
The e-learning classes will be even larger than 28, with an average of 35 students, according to
a ministry memo obtained by the Star. Some educators expressed concern because there are students
who don’t have a computer at home while others would miss the benefit of personal interaction
that research has shown helps students succeed.
Paul Hunter is a reporter and feature writer based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter:
@hunterhockey
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2019/03/17/we-have-a-system-in-crisis-says-brant-childrens-aid
-society-after-cuts-lead-to-26-workers-being-laid-off.html
‘We have a system in crisis,’ says Brant children’s aid society after cuts lead to 26 workers
being laid off
By Sandro Contenta Feature Writer
Sun., March 17, 2019
The Ontario government is placing vulnerable children in danger by forcing cuts resulting in 26
child protection workers being laid off at the Brant children’s aid society, the agency’s executive
director says.
The job cuts come as the Brantford area faces perhaps the worst opioid addiction epidemic in the
province, one that has swelled the number of children served by the child protection agency.
“When governments cut child welfare services (managers, front line staff, and support services),
children ultimately die or are allowed by society to live in unbearable, violent and neglectful
conditions,” wrote Andrew Koster, executive director of Brant Family and Children’s Services.
“When governments cut child welfare services (managers, front line staff, and support services),
children ultimately die or are allowed by society to live in unbearable, violent and neglectful
conditions,” wrote Andrew Koster, executive director of Brant Family and Children’s Services.
(JIM RANKIN / TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO)
Andrew Koster, executive director of Brant Family and Children’s Services, expressed the risks
in stark terms in an open letter to the community last Thursday, the day the workers were notified
of the layoffs.
“When governments cut child welfare services (managers, front line staff, and support services),
children ultimately die or are allowed by society to live in unbearable, violent and neglectful
conditions,” Koster wrote.
“With higher caseloads and tight timelines, workers are forced to move from one crisis to another
instead of planning and working proactively with families to prevent future incidents,” he added.
“Despite best efforts, children fall through the cracks and suffer the consequences of insufficient
resources.”
Read more:
How one child welfare agency is building trust
Through the eyes of a CAS front-line worker
Use of 'behaviour-altering' drugs widespread in foster, group homes
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The cri de coeur comes from an executive with almost five decades of experience in Ontario’s child
protection system. He says other children’s aid societies are facing similar budgetary pressures
and fears the system is at a breaking point.
“We have a system in crisis,” Koster said in an interview Sunday.
Caroline Newton, spokesperson for the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies, says all
eyes will be on the provincial budget this spring. Finance Minister Vic Fedeli has signalled the
government will act to reduce a deficit he places at $13.5 billion.
“We’re watching the coming provincial budget for how communities will be supported to keep
vulnerable children and families safe,” Newton said in an interview.
“We have to have the capacity to respond when children are at risk — that’s our mandate,” Newton
added. “We’re like the police; we don’t get to say, ‘Sorry, no one is at the station.’”
The Brantford area had the highest rate of emergency ward visits in Ontario due to opioid overdoses
— 141 per 100,000 people in 2017, compared to a provincial rate of 54. Some child protection workers
bring Naloxone to home visits, in case they find overdose victims that need the life-saving antidote.
The Brant job cuts come after the provincial government eliminated the office of the Provincial
Advocate for Children and Youth, which investigated the mistreatment and death of children in care.
The government transferred some of the advocate’s responsibilities to the ombudsman’s office. But
Irwin Elman, whose role as provincial advocate ends April 1, says the ombudsman’s investigative powers
are far more limited than those of his office, particularly when it comes to children who die or are
harmed while in care.
“There is no doubt in my mind that Ontario is suffering a great loss with the closing of our Office,”
Elman said in a goodbye statement released last week.
The Brant job cuts were imposed by a $1.7-million deficit caused largely by the ministry’s policies,
said Koster, whose agency is based in Brantford, hometown of hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, west
of Hamilton.
For example, the previous Liberal government paid 75 per cent of costs when foster parents committed
to giving children a permanent home, either through adoption or caring for them until they’re 18
years old. Last fall, Premier Doug Ford’s government slashed that funding for all children’s aid
agencies to 25 per cent of costs, Koster says.
For the Brant society, that meant a $300,000 annual reduction in provincial funding, he adds.
The government also reduced Brant’s funding by $700,000 because 50 of the agency’s children were to
be transferred to a newly formed Indigenous children’s aid society. But the transfer process is
slow and many of those children are still with Brant.
Koster fully supports the set up of an Indigenous child welfare agency in the Brantford area. But
he’s angered by the government’s refusal to reimburse funding for the children Brant continues to
care for due to the slow transfer process.
Brant also spent $400,000 on hiring and training staff to operate a new centralized database called
CPIN. The former Liberal government ordered all children’s aid societies to implement the system,
which allows societies to better share information.
But Koster said Brant had to revert to using the old data system when the new Indigenous agency had
concerns with the data being collected under CPIN and refused to adopt it. The government now
refuses to reimburse Brant the $400,000 it spent.
“We’re not in a deficit for anything we’ve done,” Koster says. “It’s because of ministry decisions.”
Koster says his agency, which has about 300 children in foster care, would have run out of money to
pay staff by March 22. He says ministry officials played hardball, and were prepared to see the
agency shut down until early April, when funding for the new fiscal year would be provided.
“That was the most disturbing thing for me,” he says, adding he implemented the layoffs to avoid the
shutdown scenario.
Provincial efforts to identify cost reductions and help Brant stay within its budget began under the
previous Liberal government in 2015, Derek Rowland, press secretary to Lisa MacLeod, Minister of
Children, Community and Social Services, said in an email to the Star. Yet Brant continues to
struggle to stay within budget.
Rowland described the safety of vulnerable children as the provincial government’s “utmost
priority.”
“The ministry does not pay off or forgive children’s aid society deficits,” ministry
spokesperson Trell Huether said in a separate email to the Star, adding that societies determine
their own staffing. By provincial regulation, societies must balance their budgets. Huether said two-
thirds of them do so.
The funding formula for societies, Huether added, is based on the socio-economic needs of a
community, the number of children in care and the volume of abuse investigations it conducts. In
2018-19, the Brant societies received $23.8 million from the government, a 1.8-per-cent increase
from the previous fiscal year, Huether said.
The ministry spends about $1.5 billion annually on a child protection system that serves some
14,000 kids taken from abusive or neglectful parents and placed in foster or group homes. There
are 49 children’s aid societies in Ontario, including 11 Indigenous ones, according to the
ministry’s website.
(If you're in teacher's college and you're about to do your student teaching prepare yourself for the tests. The staff and students treat you with hostility to test whether or not you can take it or whether you lose your temper and try to beat someone up or if you make death threats. They want to weed-out people who have a bad temper or people who just want to teach so they have the summer months off. They tell the students to be rowdy and to ignore you when you ask them to listen. Good luck.)
(Hi, Belgium, Bonjour, Belgium.)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/tdsb-has-a-change-of-heart-after-barring-21-kids-from-downtown-school-to-make-room-for-foreign-students-1.5030913?cmp=newsletter-news-digests-toronto
(In 2012 the Ontario English Catholic Teacher's Association, the union for all elementary and secondary Catholic teachers in Ontario, negotiated a collective bargaining agreement with the Ontario government for a two-year agreement. The union wanted hiring of the most experienced and qualified teachers since they had hundreds of experienced teachers who were stuck in substitute teaching and since many school boards were not even advertising contract or full-time, permanent teaching positions, they were just giving them to the children of people in administration, and those substitute teachers were going bankrupt and they were really pushing their union to get an agreement so they could at least get contract positions which would increase their salaries significantly. The boards made an agreement but they almost took their first-born to consent to hiring experienced, qualified teachers. The boards and the Province of Ontario demanded and got: no strike for two years; no raises for two years; no payout of banked, unused sick days at retirement up to a maximum of 200 sick days; 10 out of 20 sick days surrendered; death benefits; and something else I can't remember. OECTA signed and called it a major victory. ETFO, elementary public teachers union, refused to sign it. OSSTF, public secondary teacher's union, refused to sign it. After a few months of quiet discussion the unions all signed it. By the way it turned out there was an interview involved and you had to get a satisfactory agreement based on your interview to make it onto a roster from which the principals would choose who got the contracts. My question is: why was the province and why were the school boards so opposed to hiring the more experienced, more qualified teachers? It is called regulation 274/12. There was so much family hiring in school boards a dispute made the front page of the Windsor Star. A full-time teacher in Toronto said family hiring is just as bad in the public boards but they are better at keeping a lid on it. Don't become a teacher in Ontario unless you have family in a full-time position. In my opinion, you'll end up in substitute teaching for years, the full-timers will not support you, it's all your fault if anything goes wrong, they might let you have special ed., it will probably drive you out within five years and you have to have five years of university to qualify for the honour.)
Ontario school guidance counsellors seek more resources
in dealing with mental health concerns
By Kristin Rushowy Queen's
Park Bureau
Mon., March 25, 2019
Student mental health is a huge concern for school guidance
counsellors — who these days help kids with everything from stress to substance
abuse and have even become the go-to person for families looking to find
counselling.
A survey by the Ontario School Counsellors’ Association, to
be released Monday, found that providing mental health help is the most drastic
change the profession has faced, given a general lack of services and long wait
times in the community — and it’s the one area they are now urging they receive
more training in, given the new realities of their job.
Nicole Trotter, a middle-school guidance counsellor with the
Peel District School Board and president of the Ontario School Counsellors’
Association, says “mental health just falls into pretty much everything within
our work.”
Not only do they provide support to students, but are often
expected to link families — and even marriages — to community agencies in times
of crisis.
“The minute somebody’s at my door, I drop everything — they
are what matters most,” said Nicole Trotter, a middle-school guidance
counsellor with the Peel District School Board and president of the
association.
With school board social workers and psychologists already
stretched among a number of schools, “we can’t diagnose (mental health issues),
but we are sometimes the first resource the school comes to — teachers come to,
students come to — when there’s an issue.”
The survey of 650 school guidance counsellors, who are
specially trained, fully certified teachers, found that the top priority for
training among those working in both elementary and secondary pertains to
student mental health and wellness.
They spend more than eight hours a week working with
students on social/emotional and interpersonal issues as well as liaising with
psychologists and mental health professionals.
When asked what they think students’ expectations are,
guidance counsellors said “be a mother,” “be a father,” “psychologist,” while
parents want them to “be the parent when they cannot get through to their
child,” as well as “family or marriage counsellor.”
The changing role of the guidance counsellor — typically
thought of as someone who helps with course selection and career and
post-secondary pathways, and who support students who have been disciplined —
was confirmed in a recent People
for Education survey, which found that one in four high school counsellors
spent much of their time “providing one-on-one counselling to students for
mental health needs.”
High schools have an average of roughly one guidance
counsellor for every 385 students. Most elementary schools, because of their
smaller size, share a counsellor with a number of other schools.
In 2018, the former Liberal government provided additional
funding for counsellors specifically to help students in Grades 7 and 8.
“We are the first contact,” added Trotter, who works
full-time in guidance thanks to a special initiative in Peel that has added
even more guidance resources. “Because of our role, we are spending (the) most
time with these students when they are unable to manage the demands of the
classroom.
“We might be providing a safe space, calm learning
conditions, or helping a student calm down after a panic attack. It can be
anything.”
Counsellors also work on diversity and inclusiveness
initiatives, bullying and cyberbullying prevention but at the core of all that
they do “mental health just falls into pretty much everything within our work,”
she added.
Psychologists and social workers aren’t on-site and work
among a number of schools, “we also know in the community that wait times are
horrible,” she added. “One of the biggest things are pushing for is training
and professional development in all of these areas when it comes to mental
health — self-harm, suicide — anything along that mental health scope, because
we are helping to manage it on the front lines.
“It’s students first — you can’t turn a student away.”
“I think of my own day,” she added. “I start with my
students most at risk, and I end my day with them as well … it’s students
first. You can’t turn a student away.”
With kids feeling more comfortable speaking out about mental
health, the Ontario Student Trustees’ Association is looking for more support
and resources in schools. A recent survey it conducted found one in three
students felt there weren’t enough, and about half of parents and teachers felt
services were inadequate to meet demand.
Clarington Central Secondary School student Lindsey Keene
said teens naturally head to the guidance office because they are a constant
presence, and students are assigned to one in particular so they have a
familiar face to turn to.
Given the recent
announcement by the government — boosting secondary class sizes from 22 to
28 over the next four years, with an estimated 10,000 teaching positions lost —
Keene said the association is worried about losing any adult presence in
schools.
The government has said the class sizes are in line with
other jurisdictions in Canada, and that larger classes can help build teen
resiliency.
The student association has been advocating for more
guidance counsellors in elementary and secondary schools, she added, given the
level of youth stress and anxiety.
“At this point, we don’t know what might happen in terms of
what staff schools might lose … but we want to make sure that those positions stay
there,” said Keene, who is the public affairs co-ordinator for the
organization.
Toronto Catholic board Chair Maria Rizzo called the current
guidance-student ratios “disgusting.”
“The bottom line is: We have a crisis and we don’t have
enough staff to address it,” said Rizzo.
“ … I kind of think that you pay now, or you pay later.”
The Ontario and federal governments have pledged $3.8
billion over the next decade for mental health support for adults and children.
Kristin Rushowy is a Toronto-based reporter covering Ontario
politics. Follow her on Twitter: @krushowy
Mandatory online courses in Ontario high schools raise
concerns for educators
By Kristin Rushowy Queen's
Park Bureau
Sat., March 23, 2019
Is Ontario’s move to mandatory e-learning off the mark?
In a massive shift to digital coursework, Ontario will soon
require high school students to earn four online credits before they graduate —
a first in North America.
The Ontario government’s plan would see high school students
earn one e-learning credit a year in online classes. (JONATHAN
HAYWARD / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO)
But with few details about the move, which begins in
2020-21, critics are questioning the rapid push to so much virtual learning so
soon.
“Although e-learning classes provide a modernized learning
experience for students, these courses are not a good fit for everyone,” said
Amal Qayum, president of the Ontario Student Trustees’ Association, which found
in a 2017 survey of teens that three-quarters felt online lacked when compared
to a regular classroom setting.
The group called on the Ford government to “reverse the rule
mandating that all secondary school students take four e-learning courses” out
of the 30 required for graduation “as different learning styles cannot be
accommodated by an all-encompassing change in graduation requirements.”
The government’s plan would see teens earn one e-learning
credit a year in online classes with an average of 35 students.
“Further information will be available at a later date,”
said Kayla Iafelice, a spokesperson for Education Minister Lisa Thompson.
Have your say
What do you think of e-learning courses?
It's
a move in the right direction. Students should learn in all environments,
including digital.
It's a slippery slope. More and more digital classes means less human interaction.
I don't know. I would need to see the courses to make a decision.
It's a slippery slope. More and more digital classes means less human interaction.
I don't know. I would need to see the courses to make a decision.
Speaking in the legislature, Premier Doug Ford said “we’re
focusing on technology as well” as a package of education reforms that will
also see the average secondary school class jump from 22 students to 28 over
the next four years.
But NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said with larger classes — and
an estimated loss of 10,000 teaching positions — the “Ford government’s plan
for our kids (is) fewer teachers, larger class sizes, more Googling.
“The premier says he consulted with parents,” Horwath said.
“Can he tell us how many of those parents asked for larger class sizes and
learning from YouTube?”
A handful of American states already require one mandatory
online course in high school, while others simply recommend it.
In Ontario, about 50,000 high school students took at least
one online course in 2018.
Clare Brett of the Ontario Institute for Studies in
Education, who has been researching online learning for 30 years, said “on the
face of it, it’s a good idea. It’s a good experience for students to get — if
it’s a good experience.”
She’s said quality, however, can be an issue, and she’s also
not keen on the credits being mandatory. “What does it mean? You do not
graduate if you don’t have four credits?”
The government has said students with special needs can be
exempt.
Some U.S. studies have shown online achievement equal to or
marginally better than in school, though concerns about higher dropout rates
are common. However, Brett said that could be because it’s the easiest thing
for students to drop and pick up later.
Harvey Bischof, president of the Ontario Secondary School
Teachers’ Federation, said “there is a value in online education in certain
cases,” especially in remote and rural areas where there is not a broad range
of course offerings.
For students who are highly motivated, they can work well,
but “our experience shows that credit delivery through online learning is not
very efficient, whatsoever,” Bischof said.
Kristin Rushowy is a Toronto-based reporter covering Ontario
politics. Follow her on Twitter: @krushowy
Ford warns teachers’ unions not to dare protest
class-size increases
By Robert Benzie Queen's
Park Bureau Chief
Kristin Rushowy
Queen's Park Bureau
Fri., March 22, 2019
Premier Doug Ford is warning teachers’ unions against taking
any action to
protest his government’s move to increase class sizes to save money.
“If the head of the unions want to hurt the children of this
province by doing walkouts and everything else, I’d think twice if I were
them,” Ford said Friday in Ottawa where he was touting the province’s $1.2
billion investment in a local light rail transit project.
Premier Doug Ford speaks during a press conference at
Queen's Park on March 20, 2019. Ford has issued a warning to teachers not to
take any action to protest changes to education. (COLE
BURSTON / THE CANADIAN PRESS)
“You know I think the world of teachers but I might
differentiate between labour and labour leadership, public and private sector
unions,” the premier said.
“I love the front-line teachers and we may not see eye to
eye with the head of the unions because all they want to do is collect their
union dues and start pocketing (them) into their pockets,” he said.
Ford’s comments came after the Ontario Secondary School
Teachers’ Federation said a high school with 800
students would lose 11 teachers — from 46 to 35 — due to changes
introduced by his government.
OSSTF president Harvey Bischof said that’s the toll from
increasing the average secondary school class size from 22 student to 28 over
the next four years and it could trigger “disruption” this fall with teacher
contracts expiring at the end of August.
That’s because OSSTF members “will not concede” to bigger
classes in their local collective agreements.
In total, the union expects to lose 5,700 teachers in
English-language public high schools alone.
Bischof said manufacturing a division between union leaders
and members “is an old, tired tactic by right-wing premiers.”
“We represent the membership. We are an extremely democratic
organization,” he said, noting members voted to re-elect him just a couple of
weeks ago.
“The premier’s expressed interest in front-line teachers is
rather undermined by the fact that he’s trying to remove 25 per cent of
teachers. It sounds like rank hypocrisy.”
As for Ford’s suggestion union dues may be misspent, Bischof
said the OSSTF’s budget is “extremely transparently accounted for” and such
unfounded accusations by a premier “are beneath the dignity of his office.”
Across all school boards, about 10,000 teaching positions
are expected to be eliminated, as classes in Grades 4 to 8 grow by an average
of one student, and an average of six in high school.
The Progressive Conservative government has said class caps
in kindergarten and the primary grades will remain.
Education Minister Lisa Thompson has said the larger class
sizes will prepare students for the real world.
“We’re hearing from professors and employers alike that they
are lacking coping skills and they are lacking resiliency,” Thompson told CBC
Radio’s Metro Morning host Matt Galloway on Wednesday.
Her comments provoked an outcry, but Ford urged teachers to
see the big picture.
“I worry about the front-line teachers. I worry about the
students. I worry about the 50 per cent of our Grade 6 students that are
failing math. I’m worried about one-third of our teachers that can’t even pass
the same math test the Grade 6 students are failing,” he said.
The premier, elected last June on a promise of making $6
billion in cuts to the $150 billion budget, noted that Finance Minister Vic
Fedeli spending plan on April 11 will be more moderate than his critics fear.
“We’re going to be responsible. We aren’t going to go in
there and hack and slash. We’re going to make sure we do it responsibly,” he
said.
Robert Benzie is the Star’s Queen’s Park bureau chief and a
reporter covering Ontario politics. Follow him on Twitter: @robertbenzie
Kristin Rushowy is a Toronto-based reporter covering Ontario
politics. Follow her on Twitter: @krushowy
High school teachers’ union warns of labour ‘disruption’
in fall over class-size changes
By Kristin Rushowy
Queen's Park Bureau
Thu., March 21, 2019
An average high school with 800 students will lose 11
teachers — from 46 to 35 — because of changes introduced by the Ford
government, the union representing secondary educators is warning.
Moving from an average of 22
students to 28 students in a class will mean thousands of jobs
eliminated over the next four years — some 5,700 in English public high schools
alone, said Harvey Bischof, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’
Federation.
Harvey Bischof, president of the Ontario Secondary School
Teachers’ Federation, warns that thousands of teaching jobs will disappear
under the province’s plan to increase class sizes. (ANDREW FRANCIS
WALLACE / TORONTO STAR)
“That equates to a loss of approximately 34,000 classes,” he
said Thursday. “It means that any smaller, more specialized program is unlikely
to survive. It means ballooning class sizes in any course that is not limited
by issues such as student safety, as we would see in certain technology
classes.”
And, he added, “it means in a fairly average high school of
800 students, by 2023, instead of the current 46 classroom teachers, there
would be 35.”
Bischof also warned of upcoming “disruption” this fall,
given teacher contracts expiring at the end of August, saying his members “will
not concede” to bigger classes in their local agreements.
Across all school boards, about 10,000 teaching positions
are expected to be eliminated, as classes in Grades 4 to 8 grow by an average
of one student, and an average of six in high school. The government has said
class caps in kindergarten and the primary grades will remain.
The Ontario Public School Boards Association believes the
increases will “have a dramatic and harmful effect on both students and staff
in secondary schools across Ontario” and is asking the government to take a
“second look” as it did with its controversial
autism overhaul.
“They have said that they are still doing consultations
until the end of May,” said OPSBA President Cathy Abraham, adding she hopes the
ministry will realize “the negative impact of such a big increase.
“It’s not just about adding six students to every class in
the province. It doesn’t work like that. I’m very concerned that there will be
very, very large classes in order to support the (smaller) classes that meet
kids’ needs.”
As for the government’s claim that employers want young
workers who are resilient — something Education Minister Lisa Thompson
said larger
classes help to foster — Bischof said “at a time when small,
collaborative groups are the innovation engine of so many Ontario businesses,
is an industrial model of 40 or 45 students in a class really going to produce
students who meet employers’ needs?”
On Wednesday, Thompson told CBC Radio’s Metro
Morning that the government is “hearing from professors and employers
alike that (youth) are lacking coping skills and they are lacking resiliency.”
“By increasing class sizes in high school, we are preparing
them for the reality of post-secondary, as well as the world of work.”
Bischof called her claim “outlandish” and not supported by
any research.
The government will save about $250 million in the first
year alone with changes to class sizes.
Thompson has promised no teachers will be laid off and all
positions eliminated will be through attrition.
SNOBELEN: Ontario's
education minister on right track with positive changes
John Snobelen
Published: March 22, 2019
Updated: March 22, 2019 4:17 PM EDT
Education Minister Lisa Thompson unveils changes to the
school system on Friday, March 15, 2019 in Toronto. (Ernest Doroszuk/Toronto
Sun)
There aren’t a lot of easy jobs in government but most
people would agree that minister of education has one of the toughest
assignments.
It is a massive ministry, it spends a ton of money and it
matters.
Arguably no other department of government has a more
important role in shaping the future of the province.
K-12 public education is the ultimate clique. Education
bureaucrats and the teacher unions cut up the billions spent in the name of
education while negotiating education quality at the bargaining table.
Parents, students and taxpayers are all, to one degree or
another, excluded from this happy cabal.
So is logic.
There are lots of examples of the chasm between the concerns
of parents and the priorities of the public education cartel.
Parents don’t ask for much, but they would like a school
system that puts an emphasis on numeracy and literacy and provides regular,
objective evaluations of student performance.
Taxpayers don’t object to funding quality public education —
but is it too much to ask for meaningful value audits and cost comparisons with
other jurisdictions?
If the school system was responsive to the concerns of
parents and taxpayers low math scores and escalating costs would keep educrats
and union leaders up at night.
Instead, the system seems much more concerned with
protecting teacher jobs and perks.
Consider the recent kerfuffle over class size.
While student enrollment in Ontario has declined over the
past decade, the number of teachers employed in the system has actually
increased.
But the lower ratio of students to teachers hasn’t improved
student performance. In fact, some test results have declined.
The bottom line is easy to add up. While classroom caps have
been wonderful for teacher union executives, they haven’t done much for
students.
That is particularly true for the students condemned to
split classes caused by class size caps.
The gap between the interests of the education community and
the needs of parents and taxpayers is what makes the job of education minister
difficult.
This week Ontario Education Minister Lisa Thompson announced
some changes that tilt the balance of priorities toward the parents.
It’s about time.
- PCs unveil Ontario’s new sex-ed curriculum, raise high school class sizes
- Sex-ed curriculum critics call for PC minister to resign
- PCs and teachers battle over job numbers
The minister revealed two important curriculum changes, a
more sensible class size protocol and an important foray into e-learning.
A part of the announcement dealt with changes to the health
and sex-ed curriculum. The new, more balanced approach continues to tackle
difficult subjects, but it puts more control in the hands of parents.
Minister Thompson also revealed the long-awaited answer to
Ontario’s serious erosion in math scores — a back-to-basics math curriculum.
The most forward-looking announcement was a requirement for
online high school credit courses. Beginning in 2020, Ontario students will be
required to take one online course every year.
But the education clique barely noticed those positive
changes. The unions were collectively horrified and outraged by the Minister’s
announcement that class sizes would grow over the next four years, Thompson’s
balanced approach to class size (small classes for young students, larger
classes in high school) will bring Ontario closer to the average staffing
levels in Canadian schools.
The backlash from the teacher unions over the class size
announcement is a clear indication that, after over a decade of being ignored,
the needs of parents, students and taxpayers are finally being addressed.
Better curriculum, e-learning and realistic class sizes are
good things.
And that makes Lisa Thompson a darn good education minister.
(New teacher professional development in the U.S.)
Teachers reportedly shot ‘execution style' with pellet
guns during active shooter drill
'They were injured to the extent that welts appeared and
blood was drawn'
Empty classroom with wooden chairs.sengchoy/Getty Images
Perry Stein
March 22, 2019
8:24 AM EDT
It was billed as a drill.
But law enforcement officials at an Indiana elementary
school reportedly ordered teachers to turn around and crouch and then shot them
with plastic pellets, leaving the educators bruised and bloodied during an
active-shooter training drill.
Details about the January incident emerged during a
Wednesday hearing before state lawmakers on proposed legislation outlining how
schools could spend grants from the Indiana safe-schools fund. The measure
would require schools to have active-shooter training.
Gail Zeheralis, director of government relations for the
Indiana State Teachers Association, testified about a small school district
between Indianapolis and Chicago that appeared to take its active-shooter
training drill too far.
Sheriff’s deputies directed teachers at a Twin Lakes School
Corporation elementary school in Monticello, Indiana, into a room four at a
time, told them to crouch down and then shot them execution-style with pellets
in rapid succession, according to Zeheralis’s testimony.
“They were injured to the extent that welts appeared and
blood was drawn,” according to Zeheralis’s prepared testimony, which was shared
with The Washington Post. “There was screaming.”
Zeheralis said teachers waiting outside the room heard their
co-workers screaming, and then were brought into the room and shot with the
pellets. She said the teachers were told not to relay what happened to anyone.
The teachers union, which supports the safe-schools grants,
called for an amendment prohibiting drills that include shooting at teachers.
“We believe adding a sentence prohibiting the firing of any
projectile during these drills is a sufficient and necessary guideline going
forward,” Zeheralis’s testimony read. “No one in education takes these drills
lightly. The risk of harming someone far outweighs whatever added realism may
be sought.”
Twin Lakes School Corporation offered few details but said
in a statement the drill was conducted in partnership with the White County
Sheriff’s Department. The sheriff’s department provided the school staff with
ALICE training, which stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate.
Twin Lakes School Corporation said it received questions
about the training from the local teachers union and arranged a meeting between
educators and law enforcement to discuss the incident.
- Ten dead in Brazil school shooting, including two gunmen
- The Florida high school shooting victims: ‘A sickness that has gripped our country’
“Twin Lakes looks forward to continuing its important
partnerships with the Twin Lakes Classroom Teachers Organization and the White
County Sheriff’s Department in pursuing a safe environment for all students and
employees,” the statement read.
The Sheriff’s Department did not immediately respond to a
request for comment. The department told the Indianapolis Star it had conducted
similar training before but that after receiving a complaint, it would no
longer use air-powered devices to shoot teachers.
Dan Holub, executive director of the Indiana State Teachers
Association, said the proposed legislation and the publicity from the training
incident has generated productive conversations about how Indiana can prepare
and prevent emergency situations that schools might face.
“It’s important that we understand what’s happening in our
schools,” Holub said. “This is a case with extraordinarily poor judgment, and
the community has a right to know about it.”
Randall Denley: Ontario PCs' modest education plan will
still be seen as radical by unions
The moderately ambitious plan will still be seen as
revolutionary in the context of an education system that measures success
primarily by class size and dollars spent
Ontario is raising some class sizes and introducing a new
sex-ed curriculum ...2:51
March 21, 2019
9:11 PM EDT
Critics of the Ontario PCs’ education plan have seen right
through the government’s claim that it’s “modernizing” our schools. It’s about
money, they say. Brilliant! Go to the head of the class.
When a government is facing an 11-figure deficit, everything
it does is about money, to some considerable degree. This should come neither
as a shock nor a revelation. Nor should it be surprising that a government
aiming to eliminate the deficit it inherited would reduce costs in its
second-largest-spending ministry. This is what happens when a province has a
multi-billion dollar gap between what people consider an essential level of services
and what they are actually paying for.
The fairer way to assess the government’s new education plan
is to ask whether it is reasonable under the financial circumstances the
province faces. If something has to be changed, is the province changing the
right things?
The plan to increase class sizes has drawn most of the
criticism, with the secondary school teaching union saying it had “declared
war.” War is the normal state of affairs for teaching unions in Ontario. They
have fought governments of all three parties, going back to the last century.
The Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario has hilariously referred to the
Liberal years between 2009 and 2018 as “a struggle against austerity.”
- Ontario education minister says higher class sizes will teach kids resiliency and coping skills
- Ontario increasing class sizes, will teach gender identity and consent in sex ed
- ‘Nothing in the curriculum prohibits a teacher from teaching any of the topics in question’: court ruling
The government will maintain class-size caps until the end
of Grade 3. In a move it says will bring Ontario in line with most other
provinces, it would add one elementary student to the average class from grades
4 to 8. Secondary school classes would increase from an average of 22 students
to an average of 28.
This what the government hopes, at least. Class sizes in
Ontario are part of the collective agreements with unions. The increases the
PCs are calling for will not be easily achieved, but if the government is to
accomplish anything more than a symbolic spending tweak, it has to increase the
student-teacher ratio. It is the only practical way to reduce labour costs.
Thousands of teaching jobs will be eliminated, through attrition.
The larger class sizes make up more than half of the total
PC spending reduction plan, which is estimated to save about $1 billion and
will be phased in over four years. Prepare to hear that this change will
devastate the province’s schools, but it looks pretty modest compared to the
$29-billion education budget.
The last thing that was predicted to devastate our schools
was changing the sex-ed curriculum. The new PC plan features mostly minor
changes in the timing of the content delivered in the previous Liberal plan.
Another cataclysm avoided.
More substantively, the PCs are promising a more basic
approach to math, an increased focus on science and technology skills and more
emphasis on trades education. All these changes are overdue. In general,
schools need to focus on the skills the job market requires. Ontario student
achievement on standardized math tests has been slowly declining in grades 3
and 6, and in Grade 9 fewer than half of the students in the applied stream
meet the provincial standard. The Liberal solution was to keep spending more
money on the same approach. Maybe the PC plan won’t work either, but it makes
more sense than repeating the same failed methods.
A rally in Owen Sound in February, organized by the Ontario
Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, protested potential cuts or changes to
Ontario’s education system by the Ford government. Denis Langlois/The Owen
Sound Sun Times/Postmedia
Ontario students will also be expected to take four courses
online over their high school careers. If some other party proposed it, this
change would be considered a forward-looking embrace of technology.
Overall, the PC plan is only moderately ambitious, but it
will still be seen as revolutionary in the context of an education system that
measures success primarily by class size and dollars spent. The PC changes will
make the jobs of secondary school teachers more onerous, without a doubt. They
will not be the first professional group to face such a challenge.
Nevertheless, the teaching unions will fight change because
that’s what they do. Expect the unions to tell us how devastating the spending
reductions will be for disadvantaged children, a more appealing argument than
pure self-interest.
In that context, new research from the Centre for
Independent Studies in Australia reaches some interesting conclusions. In a
study of disadvantaged schools, researchers found that the key factors of
success were experienced principals, a systematic and methodical approach to
teaching, and strong, consistent classroom discipline. Principals of the most
successful schools stayed away from the inquiry-based learning Ontario has
loved so much, on the grounds that it requires background knowledge that
lower-income and immigrant students typically do not have. The education
researcher who did the report said the critical factor was not how much schools
spent, but how they spent it.
Imagine.
Randall Denley is an Ottawa political commentator and
former Ontario PC candidate. Contact him at randalldenley1@gmail.com
Fix the system but don’t hurt students
There’s a big, bloated bureaucracy and many programs that
have outlived their usefulness — how about starting there?
Opinion 01:44 PM by Janet Trull Hamilton Spectator
Ontario Education Minister Lisa Thompson stands alongside
Parliamentary Assistant, Sam Oosterhoff, as she makes a statement about changes
to the education system. Janet Trull argues the government can make changes and
become more efficient without hurting students. - Chris Young , The Canadian
Press
The Progressive Conservative government of Ontario released
a memo urging school boards to implement a hiring freeze. Class sizes will
increase. Fewer teachers will be in schools. Some money will be saved. Not
enough to balance the budget. Not enough to justify pushing a highly stressed
system over the edge. At a time when students are requiring more and more
individualized support, the government must look beyond the classroom for cuts
to human resources.
Something has to give. We get it. The education bureaucracy
needs tuning up. Current spending is unsustainable. Somebody has to go. But not
teachers.
Then who?
1. Directors. It's time to reimagine the school board
system. There are 76 public school boards in Ontario. That's 76 directors of
education, whose combined annual salaries could cover cuts made to Special
Education. Boards are not autonomous. They all follow Ministry of Education
policies and guidelines. So why are we paying directors? Area superintendents
could report directly to the Minister of Education in a centralized system,
like the one operating successfully in New Zealand.
2. Collective Agreement Specialists. Each board has a small
army of union representatives, lawyers and accountants on the payroll to settle
elementary and secondary collective agreements. Long, drawn-out negotiations
cost a fortune and interrupt school programming with work-to-rule job action
and strike threats. One hundred and fifty-two collective agreements take up
valuable time, money and attention. When the dust settles, teachers are making
roughly the same salaries in Thunder Bay as they are in Fenelon Falls or
Grimsby or Windsor. Collective agreements are almost carbon copies of each
other. Teachers are government employees, with just a few differences in
salaries, pensions, conditions of employment, benefits and things like class
size. One collective agreement should be enough.
3. EQAO. The Education Quality and Accountability Office. It
costs around $35 million a year to run this organization, according to its
website. Designed to gather information on student achievement in reading,
writing and math in grades 3, 6 and 9, as well as the OSS Literacy Test, the
process has outlived its mandate. We have learned everything we need to from
these tests, and yet they continue to burden schools with yearly interruptions
to instructional time. There is no evidence that large-scale testing improves
the quality of education. And many of the programming changes, which were
developed in response to the data, have resulted in plummeting scores,
especially in math. Ongoing classroom assessment is more effective.
4. Student Achievement Officers. I was a Student Achievement
Officer myself for three years. As a seconded teacher, I worked for the
Literacy/Numeracy Secretariat, a branch of the Student Achievement Division. I
thoroughly enjoyed the job, travelling to schools throughout the province to
introduce curriculum, assessment and program initiatives. I felt privileged to
work with world-renowned educational researchers. But taxpayer investment is
significant and the benefits limited. There is not enough evidence to
demonstrate that this organization, over 15 years, has improved student
learning across the province in the way it was intended.
5. Queen's Park efficiency is a good thing. Agreed. But most
classrooms are running as efficiently as possible. Look elsewhere. Open the
doors to Ministry of Education-funded offices at Queen's Park. Interrupt their
busy schedules of meetings and committees and strategy development. Compare the
budgets of these offices to your local school budget:
• Communications Branch
• System Planning, Research & Innovation Division
• Strategic Planning & Transformation Branch
• Education Research & Evaluation Strategy Branch
• Incubation & Design Branch
• Education Statistics and Analysis Branch
• Student Achievement Division
• Leadership, Collaboration & Governance Branch
Too many students in Ontario are graduating without basic
level math and literacy skills. If the Progressive Conservative government is
really interested in making cuts to the education budget that will not hurt
kids, it should make some bold changes to an inefficient system and put a
hiring freeze on officers and researchers and directors before compromising
increasingly precarious school environments with overcrowded classrooms.
Janet Trull lives in Ancaster and worked for years as an
educator
Janet Trull lives in Ancaster and worked for years as an
educator
Life on autism spectrum a mystery to most
Autism community discovering its power as a voice for
positive change, The Record’s Joel Rubinoff writes
News 02:30 PM by Joel
Rubinoff Waterloo Region Record
Hundreds of parents, therapists and union members gathered
March 7 in Toronto, outside Queen's Park, to protest the provincial
government's changes to Ontario's autism program. - Frank Gunn , The Canadian
Press
Even as the parent of a kid with autism, I can be fooled by
stereotypes.
When a member of my wife's extended family passed away a few
weeks ago, my two sons were in the middle of a heated dispute over
snowball-fight etiquette, about to come to blows.
When the call came in, I fully expected them to ignore the
sad news, partly because their complaining had reached an apocalyptic
crescendo, but also because neither had ever met their U.S.-based great uncle.
So I was surprised when nine-year-old Sam quietly burst into
tears, but downright shocked when Max — a classic case of still waters run deep
— followed suit.
He was clearly devastated, and I was stunned to see my
normally stoic 10-year-old — whose diagnosis inferred he would never exhibit
true empathy — visibly moved by the ephemeral nature of existence.
Once the tears subsided, I figured their sibling rivalry
would continue unabated but, before I could stage a pre-emptive intervention, I
noticed Max giving Sam a hug and telling him "We have to stick
together."
This isn't the first time I've been taken aback by Max's
reactions, and questioned the legitimacy of typecasting people on the spectrum.
"He will not be like other kids. He will not form close
relationships. He will be marginalized forever."
This is what was implied — if not stated outright — when he
was diagnosed at age three. It's the Kool-Aid we all drank.
But despite the social communication challenges that define
this upsurging developmental disorder that affects one kid in 66 — mostly boys
— Max has proven time and again his ability to rise above his perceived
limitations to strike a new chord for autonomy.
The reason is simple: At every step of the way — in school,
at home, at camps and swimming lessons — Max has had the benefit of a
government-sanctioned autism program that wasn't hell bent on sticking it to
the very kids it was designed to support.
Oh, I know. The Progressive Conservative government blinked
Thursday when Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod — after six weeks of
relentless blowback — tweaked their misguided, mean-spirited rewrite of the
Liberal plan with "enhancements" that include:
•A six-month pause on funding cuts.
•The elimination of clawbacks based on income.
•The inclusion of services such as speech, physio and
occupational therapy.
•Promises to consult about additional supports for
higher-needs kids.
It's a minor victory for those on the front lines, but the
major issues remain: Annual and lifetime funding caps, age restrictions and a
misguided one-size-fits-all model that makes no sense for a disorder where no
two kids have the same issues.
It's like something Big Moose would write on the back of a
napkin at Pop's Chock'lit Shoppe.
$140,000 for every child on the spectrum? It sounds
great until you consider:
• One year of intensive behavioural therapy can run up to
$80,000.
• There are annual caps of $20,000 for kids five and under.
• These caps are reduced to a piddly $5,000 once a kid turns
six.
• The average diagnosis age is four or five.
Which means that when the Progressive Conservative plan
kicks off six months from now, kids with higher needs will see the
evidence-based therapy they need cut by 75 per cent or more, with no
replacement in sight.
It's like throwing peanuts at an elephant and shouting
"Enjoy your dinner!"
Oh, I know. It seems like a lot of money. I get the emails:
"Why do these spoiled autism parents feel so entitled? Why don't you shut
up and say thank you? Get off your high horses!"
But try telling that to the guardians of an eight-year-old
who can't communicate verbally, isn't toilet trained and requires constant
intervention to avoid whacking himself in the head or running into traffic.
It's this demographic — up to half the kids on the spectrum
— that will end up costing the province a lot more in the long run if they
aren't positioned for success now.
I'm not speaking for myself. With a lower-needs kid who
functions well at school, understands the concept of irony and gazes with
wide-eyed wonder when presented with the latest "Dog Man" graphic
novel, he can skate by with minimal supports and a lot of advocating on our
part.
Which is why I've been able to champion the "autism is
a difference — not a disability" model while fellow spectrum dwellers
react with panicky desperation.
But as the protests against the Ford government have
continued through snow, sleet and rain, and the autism community learns to
speak with one voice, I'm not as cocky as I used to be.
Come on, unless it's your kid, you don't really know what
the challenges are, or how best to address them, something the PC government is
learning — like the Liberals before them — as they're forced to walk back from
every damaging, cost-cutting pronouncement.
The truth is, most people don't have a clue about life on
the spectrum, an unsurprising revelation given pop-culture clichés that
include:
• Designer Autism, in which celebrities like Daryl Hannah
and Dan Aykroyd wake up one day and — lounging on luxurious silk sheets —
decide "Holy smokes, I have autism!" without a shred of evidence to
back them up. Hallelujah.
• TV Autism, where endearing characters such as Sheldon on
"The Big Bang Theory" and the lovelorn teenager on
"Atypical" make comical, deadpan observations tinged with irony. (I
would have included the autistic surgeon on "The Good Doctor" but
Freddie Highmore's depiction is surprisingly nuanced.)
•Tragic Autism, encapsulated by front-page newspaper stories
about hysterical parents dropping off their high-needs kids at government
shelters because their lives have become a living hell.
Most kids with autism, in my experience, fall somewhere in
the middle — filled with potential that can be nurtured with proper supports,
but easily squandered without them.
Do they all need $80,000 worth of therapy a year?
Of course not.
Does the level of support required diminish over time?
That's the expectation.
Are they going to go quietly into that good night when the
funding tap dries up at 18, never to be heard from again?
Ha, ha. That sounds like the premise of a
science-fiction movie.
To be fair, coming up with an autism plan that doesn't spark
passionate disapproval is no easy feat.
The previous Liberal government, with its endless wait lists
and lack of checks and balances, was certainly no gold standard.
But kids such as Max — bright, curious with a whimsical
sense of humour (another quality he's not supposed to possess) — could still
get what they needed to thrive and survive.
Not to say there aren't challenges. Autism isn't a diagnosis
handed out because your kid is having a bad day.
But things evolve, change can happen and the
"tragedy" narrative becomes irrelevant when kids are given proper
supports.
Denying them these supports, as the current government
continues to do with its budget caps and age cut-offs, is like denying glasses
to a kid with fuzzy vision or university access to an impoverished genius.
Kids with autism are brilliant. They deserve respect. And
compassion. And a shot at greatness.
Their parents shouldn't have to sell their homes to access
supports. They shouldn't have to move to other provinces or take second and
third jobs, or go into debt up to their eyeballs.
"Four long years" — that's what minister MacLeod
told autism service providers to expect if they didn't manufacture a phoney
quote in support of a program they all knew was flawed.
But with Thursday's announcement that the government is
rethinking its plan, it's clear the emperor has no clothes, the platitudes of
our Boss Hogg premier are losing traction and the autism community is
discovering its power as a voice for positive change.
Four long years? The Progressive Conservatives got that
right. They just didn't know they were talking about themselves.
jrubinoff@therecord.com
Twitter: @JoelRubinoff
Larger high school class sizes will make Ontario students
more resilient, education minister says
Lisa Thompson defends education changes in Metro Morning
interview
Muriel Draaisma · CBC News · Posted: Mar 20, 2019 1:46 PM ET
| Last Updated: 11 hours ago
Ontario Education Minister Lisa Thompson says larger high
school class sizes will benefit students by increasing their resiliency and
coping skills. (Chris Young/Canadian Press)
Ontario Education Minister Lisa Thompson says increasing the
average size of high school classes will benefit students across the province
by making them more resilient.
"When students are currently preparing to go off to
post-secondary education, we're hearing from professors and employers alike
that they're lacking coping skills and they're lacking
resiliency," Thompson told CBC Radio's Metro Morning on
Wednesday.
"By increasing class sizes in high school, we're
preparing them for the reality of post-secondary as well as the world of
work."
Last week, the Progressive Conservative government announced
its plans to boost the average class size for grades 9 to 12 to 28, up from the
current average of 22. The changes are proposed for the 2019-2020 school year,
although the government is still consulting on the changes.
You can listen to Thompson's full interview, which addresses
a number of changes to the education system, in the player below:
Metro Morning
Education Minister Lisa Thompson discusses proposed class
size change
00:00 14:28
Minister defends changes, says they will help student
resiliency 14:28
At Wednesday's question period, NDP Education Critic Marit
Stiles criticized Thompson's comments on Metro Morning.
"I guess that's a tough love approach," said
Stiles, who represents Toronto's Davenport riding.
"Does the minister actually believe that she is doing
students a favour by taking away their teachers?"
Thompson replied that she rejects Official Opposition's
position and said the government is actually making an investment in
education.
"We are going to be standing by our teachers,"
Thompson said.
Consultations guiding change, minister says
When pressed on whether or not larger classes would be good
for students, Thompson told Metro Morning she was told by teachers
and employers that larger high school class sizes are beneficial for students.
NDP MPP Marit Stiles, who represents Toronto Davenport,
asked Thompson: 'Does the minister actually believe that she is doing students
a favour by taking away their teachers?' (Government of Ontario)
"In speaking to some teachers as well, when it comes to
the group work and the teamwork that they want to facilitate in their
classrooms, that ideal number is between 26 and 28," she said.
Larger high school class sizes will also bring
Ontario in line with other provinces and territories, Thompson said.
"This change will align Ontario with other
jurisdictions in Canada," she said.
Thompson said the Ontario government has decided to make
changes to class sizes after it consulted the public extensively. The education
ministry has said the government sought opinions from employers, organizations,
teachers, parents and students.
The government isn't planning to change class sizes for
students in kindergarten to Grade 3, while there will be just one more
student per classroom for Grades 4 to 8.
Despite that pledge, there are concerns about job losses.
According to a memo sent to Toronto District School Board
trustees, the government's move will mean the loss of more than 1,000 teaching
jobs.
While still an estimate, the province's largest school board
said the changes could mean 216 fewer teachers in Grades 4 to 8 and 800 fewer
teachers in high schools, although those jobs are expected to be shed through
retirements and resignations instead of layoffs.
With files from Metro Morning
Ontario to modify
reforms to autism program after backlash from parents
JEFF
GRAY QUEEN'S PARK REPORTER
PUBLISHED MARCH 21, 2019 UPDATED 5 HOURS AGO
Lisa MacLeod, Minister of Children, Community and Social
Service, makes an announcement about Ontario's autism program, at Queen's Park,
in Toronto, on March 21, 2019.
TIJANA MARTIN/THE CANADIAN PRESS
The Ontario government says it will modify its reforms to
the province’s autism program, after more than a month of emotional protests by
parents of children with the condition.
Lisa MacLeod, the Progressive Conservative government’s
Minister of Children, Community and Social Services, said she and MPP Amy Fee –
her parliamentary assistant and a mother of two autistic children – had
convinced Premier Doug Ford to provide more “flexibility” for the funding of
the autism program, allowing for a series of changes.
Among them: consultations on how to provide more funding for
children with more acute needs, an end to the proposed income-testing regime
for autism money, and the expansion of services eligible for funding to include
speech and language therapy and physiotherapy.
“The last month has been incredibly emotional for the
families with children with autism, and I understand that,” Ms. MacLeod told
reporters at a news conference, adding that the changes are due to Ms. Fee’s
advocacy. “We’re here today so we can move forward together.”
But Ms. MacLeod would not say how much more money, beyond
the $331-million the government has already committed, the new autism program
would cost. She did say that Ontario would now spend the most per capita on
autism in North America.
The other changes include scrapping the income-testing
provisions of her original reforms, meaning that the plan will now provide
$20,000 in annual funding to all diagnosed children six and under, with older
children receiving $5,000 annually. The range of services that parents can
spend that money on is to be broadened, and include speech language pathology
and physiotherapy.
Also, families currently receiving autism treatment will see
their contracts extended by six months to ease the transition, she said.
Ms. MacLeod said she remained committed to the original goal
of the changes announced last month, to move the 23,000 children on the waiting
list for autism services into treatment.
The original package of changes prompted protests at Queen’s
Parks and saw groups of parents, some sobbing quietly, pack the public
galleries. Ms. MacLeod, who defended the plan repeatedly in Question Period,
also faced death threats. Earlier this week, she told interim Liberal leader
John Fraser in the legislature that she was consulting with parents and
stakeholders on the issue and suggested that “enhancements” were in the works.
The original reforms, some of which were to take effect
April 1, would see families get up to $140,000 for treatment, though funding
was subject to annual caps that advocates say will fall far short of what’s
needed for intensive therapy. Funding was originally to be based on age and
household income, with families earning up to $250,000 eligible for funding.
But only those with a household income of $55,000 or less will qualify for the
full amount.
EDITORIAL
Globe editorial: In
Ontario, a fight over class sizes is the wrong fight
INCLUDES CORRECTION
PUBLISHED MARCH 20, 2019 UPDATED 6 HOURS AGO
Just as spring surely follows winter, when a Progressive
Conservative government is elected to power in Ontario, teachers’ strikes will
ensue shortly thereafter.
That is where the province is now headed, and students and
their parents should prepare to be collateral damage in a war between two
constant combatants.
On one side is the PC government of Doug Ford, which
announced Friday that it wants to increase average class sizes starting in the
fall. On the other side are the province’s powerful teachers’ unions, who have
declared that they will not submit to larger class sizes in their upcoming
contract negotiations.
Class-size averages are protected in union contracts and
can’t be changed arbitrarily by the provincial government. One union leader has
vowed that any attempt to increase them will provoke “massive resistance."
“We’re absolutely not going to be in a position where we’re
going to give away the class-size caps that we have achieved over years of
negotiations,” said Harvey Bischof, president of the Ontario Secondary School
Teachers’ Federation.
Another union president, Liz Stuart of the Ontario English
Catholic Teachers’ Association, said her members will “use all means” to fight
the changes.
This is a knee-jerk reaction, but it’s not surprising. The
teachers’ unions have been the sworn enemy of the Ontario PCs since the era of
Mike Harris.
They have aligned themselves with the Ontario Liberals and
have been handsomely rewarded for their loyalty. In 2015, it came to light
that, since 2008, Liberal governments had been secretly paying some of the
unions’ negotiating expenses, to the tune of $3.74-million.
The unions would oppose pretty much anything a PC government
proposed, but they are especially wary of any attempt to reduce their
membership.
The government’s proposal, if implemented, could cut as many
as 1,000 grade-school positions and 6,000 high-school positions over four
years, according to the lobby group People for Education.
The government says the reductions will be done only through
attrition, but there is no question that it will increase the workload of
teachers who stay on.
So the stage is set for fall strikes, or, at the very least,
work-to-rule protests and heated exchanges between the government and the
teachers’ unions.
It will be disruptive and painful, but the real shame of it
is that it will amount to a battle over next to nothing, at least in terms of
what matters most (and it grieves us to have to remind both sides what that
is): the children.
There is little evidence that a moderate increase or
decrease in class size after Grade 3 has a substantial impact on student performance.
One study in particular has shown that smaller classes can be important in
preschool and Grades 1, 2 and 3, but there has never been conclusive research
demonstrating that an increase or decrease of four or five students in higher
grades made a significant difference.
The Ford government wants to increase average class sizes
for Grades 4 to 8 by one student, and for Grades 8 to 12 by six students. It is
not changing class sizes in the critical earlier years.
If the two sides allow this one issue to degenerate into
strikes or lockouts, students will be the big losers. They risk missing part of
their school year, without the prospect of being better off for it in the long
run.
The government, on the other hand, stands to cut its cost by
hundreds of millions of dollars. For a government that promised to shrink the
provincial budget without ever explaining its plans to do so, this counts as a
potential windfall.
As well, both sides stand to gain politically from a fight.
The Ford PCs would be delighted to feast on the lazy populism that sustains
them by battling the unions in the name of “the people,” while the unions can
score points by bravely resisting another heartless PC government. It’s a
simplistic ideological matchup made in Twitter heaven.
But making class size a hill to die on, as the two sides
appear to be doing, is a failure on both their parts. Public schools serve a
critical purpose, and signs – such as Ontario students’ falling math scores –
suggest that all is not well. Education deserves to be managed in a thoughtful
fashion, and not used as a pawn in some tired political game.
Editor’s note: (March 21, 2019) An earlier version of
this article incorrectly said the Ford government wants to increase the average
class size for Grades 8 to 12 by four students. In fact, it is by six students.
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @GLOBEDEBATEOPENS IN
A NEW WINDOW
'It doesn't feel
human': Students angry U of T not acknowledging campus suicides
One day after the protest, the university has issued a
statement saying a student 'fell to his death'
Shanifa Nasser · CBC News · Posted: Mar 18, 2019 8:11 PM ET
| Last Updated: March 19
Dozens of students demonstrated outside the halls of power
at the University of Toronto on Monday, calling on the school to acknowledge
what they say is a mental-health crisis on campus. (Mehrdad Nazarahari/CBC)
Students at the University of Toronto say they know one of
their fellow classmates took his own life on campus over the weekend.
Only the school itself won't say the word
"suicide" out loud.
"It's been U of T's recent trend to kind of not
acknowledge and address the suicides that take place," said Shobhit Singh,
a second-year electrical and computer engineering student.
Singh was among dozens of students who stood outside Simcoe
Hall, which houses the office of the president, to grieve the death of one of
their own and call for action after a string of suicides they say have gone
unacknowledged over the past year.
"I think this is possibly the third or the fourth time
since last year since this sort of incident has happened. And I think we've had
enough," said Singh.
'Mental health doesn't work within a limit'
Inside, dozens more sat on the floor, lining the hallway
with signs in hand, hoping their protest would prompt some acknowledgment by
the school of the tragedy and the need for urgent change.
"We want to send a very clear message that we are
hoping for open dialogue between the president and the U of T student body in
order to enact sweeping mental health reforms," said first-year student
Oliver Daniel.
Dozens of students demonstrated outside the halls of power
at the University of Toronto on Monday, calling on the school to acknowledge
what they say is a mental-health crisis on campus. (Mehrdad Nazarahari/CBC)
Sheila Rasouli, a third-year neuroscience student, said she
has written to senior administration officials, calling for 21 changes to the
system, including:
More health and wellness staff.
Increased hours around exam time.
Shorter wait times.
Check-in emails from wellness staff for students who stop
attending sessions abruptly.
Online profiles for staff that list what languages they can
offer services in.
"Mental health doesn't work within a limit; it doesn't
work within a set number and automatically you're fixed," she said.
Toronto police confirm they were called to the university
Saturday at 8:40 p.m. ET. Officers on the scene did not deem the death to be
suspicious in nature and don't believe any criminality was involved, Const.
Allyson Douglas-Cook told CBC News.
Students decry lack of resources
In a tweet Monday, the University of Toronto acknowledged
something had happened, citing "the recent incident at the Bahen
Centre," directing students to its campus services and various on- and
off-campus crisis lines.
University of Toronto
✔
@UofT
Members of our
community may have been affected by the recent incident at the Bahen Centre. At
this time, we wish to respect the privacy of the individual involved and
acknowledge the profound effect on family, friends and colleagues. (1/5)
95
12:16 PM - Mar 18, 2019
Twitter Ads info and privacy
113 people are talking about this
But first-year political science student Brian Hao, for one,
said the resources available simply aren't enough.
Hao knew the student who died — and knows all too well the
toll taken by mental-health issues if left unchecked. He felt compelled to
share his story with CBC Toronto in the hope of bringing light to a problem he
says too many are silent about.
Students say wait times to access counselling can often be
about a month long, with the number of appointments capped to about a
handful. (Mehrdad Nazarahari/CBC)
"I've been dealing with depression and anxiety since
Grade 10. It was fine, then it was really bad, then it was fine again. But
ultimately during Grade 12 exams, I had to go see a doctor to keep myself
medically safe, just to make sure I didn't do anything rash ... Because
suicidal thoughts were there."
Metro Morning
U of T student talks about his friend who died by suicide
and the need for more mental health supports on campus
LISTEN
00:00 07:50
We hear from a U of T student who participated in a protest
yesterday calling for better mental health support for students. He lost a
friend over the weekend to a suicide on campus. 7:50
Still, he said, when he arrived at the university, he didn't
know where to turn for help. It wasn't until he found himself consumed by
stress in a moment of crisis, sitting on St. George Street at 2 a.m. in shorts
and a hoodie, that he came to know about the resources available.
But even then, said Hao, "You feel so discouraged to
try to contact anyone, because it just seems like an office with a phone
number, an email, a fax line — it doesn't feel human."
Joshua Grondin
@joshgrondin_96
They ask, how could
this could happen at U of T? Throughout my undergrad, I:
- had a medical note get rejected by my prof for not
“looking sick”
- was almost put on involuntary leave
- was told I reached my max number of visits at health and
wellness
That’s how.
1,608
12:02 AM - Mar 18, 2019
Twitter Ads info and privacy
386 people are talking about this
Beyond that, said students, the wait time for counselling
can often be about a month, with the number of appointments capped to about a
handful.
Also irksome to students: a mandated leave policy approved
just under a year ago, for students at risk of harm to themselves or others
where mental health may be involved — something the university has said is
"not meant to be punitive."
'It's never going to be enough'
Janine Robb, the school's executive director of health and
wellness, said she couldn't confirm either a suicide or a death, but the family
involved requested the details be kept private.
"Something happened on campus," she said, adding
only it was "tragic incident," and the university is working to try
to fast track access to wellness services for who may have witnessed it or who
are affected.
Asked to comment on students' concerns about a lack of
available resources, Robb said she hadn't heard exactly what the concerns are,
but believes the university's approach needs to be proactive rather than
reactive.
First-year political science student Brian Hao knows the
student who died — and knows all too well the toll wrought by mental health
issues if left unchecked. (Mehrdad Nazarahari/CBC)
"We can continue to throw counsellors, psychiatrists,
medical doctors at this issue, and it's never going to be enough," she
said.
"We've got to skills build, we've got to give them
opportunities to develop better coping strategies. They need to be more
connected with others on campus."
In a statement Tuesday, the school's vice-provost Sandy
Welsh acknowledged "a student fell to his death."
"We realize the growing need for mental health services
on our campuses and in the wider community. We continue to put in place
measures to help students who we know are facing a range of mental health
issues. We are offering counselling to various student groups, and crisis
workers are also available," the statement said.
'We need to talk about what happened': UW to release report
on student mental health
University of Alberta students rally for more mental health
support
But Hao believes until the problem of student suicides is
brought out into the open, it will only grow.
Despite talking to the student who took his life only a few
days earlier, Hao said he simply couldn't tell he was struggling.
"This subject is so not talked about, so taboo, that it
really could be somebody living down the hall.
"It could be your friend, your classmate — it could be
you."
1 in 19: New study shines light on reality of suicide among
new Ontario moms, moms-to-be
What a TTC worker told a man on subway tracks to bring him
back from brink
Where to get help
Canada Suicide Prevention Service
Toll-free 1-833-456-4566
Text: 45645
Chat: crisisservicescanada.ca
In French: Association québécoise de prévention du suicide:
1-866-APPELLE (1-866-277-3553)
Kids Help Phone:
Phone: 1-800-668-6868
Text: TALK to 686868 (English) or TEXTO to 686868 (French)
Live Chat counselling at www.kidshelpphone.ca
Post-Secondary Student Helpline:
Phone: 1-866-925-5454
Good2talk.ca
Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention: Find a 24-hour
crisis centre
If you're worried someone you know may be at risk of
suicide, you should talk to them, says the Canadian Association for Suicide
Prevention. Here are some warning signs:
Suicidal thoughts.
Substance abuse.
Purposelessness.
Anxiety.
Feeling trapped.
Hopelessness and helplessness.
Withdrawal.
Anger.
Recklessness.
Mood changes.
With files from Taylor Simmons
Ontario's class size
increase could cut more than 1,000 teaching jobs, TDSB estimates
Education ministry still holding consultations on changes
with parents and school boards
CBC News · Posted: Mar 18, 2019 10:44 AM ET | Last
Updated: March 18
The Toronto District School Board says the Ontario
government's changes to average class sizes will mean fewer
teachers. (Frank Gunn/Canadian Press)
137 comments
The Ford government's decision to increase
average class sizes will mean losing more than 1,000 teaching
jobs, according to a memo sent to Toronto District School Board (TDSB)
trustees.
While still a preliminary estimate, the province's largest
school board says the significant
changes announced last week could mean 216 fewer teachers in Grades 4
to 8, and 800 fewer teachers in high schools.
The government announced the
changes to Ontario's education system on Friday, including increased
intermediate and high school class sizes, new elementary math and sex-ed
curricula and a province-wide ban on cellphones in the classroom during
instructional time.
As part of the government's new education plan, the average
class size requirement for secondary Grades 9 to 12 will be adjusted to
28, up from the current average of 22.
Meanwhile, the average class size for intermediate Grades 4
to 8 will increase to 24.5, up slightly from 23.84.
Job losses expected to come from retirements,
resignations
However, the job losses will not come from immediate
layoffs, the memo said. That's because the government is providing funding
for a four-year transition period.
"Class size reductions can only be a result of
retirements, resignations or other voluntary leaves during this period,"
the memo said.
"There will be no involuntary job losses,"
said Education Minister Lisa Thompson on Monday.
Thompson said they will be consulting with school
boards in the coming weeks to identify their number of retirements, resignations
and deployments.
Education Minister Lisa Thompson took reporters' questions
after Question Period on Monday. (CBC)
During the transition, the government said it will have an
extra $1.6 billion for school boards over the next three years for "attrition
protection to support maintaining teaching positions, where needed, so that
reductions can be managed through teacher attrition and voluntary leaves."
"We're going to work with them to make sure those
teachers don't lose their jobs if the numbers don't mesh," Thompson said.
Across the province, Harvey Bischof, President of the
Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation, said Friday the government's
plan will affect about 5,500, or about 20 per cent, of high school
teachers in publicly-funded systems.
Those jobs include 3,600 OSSTF positions, he said,
which "cannot possibly be absorbed without a significant impact on student
learning and success."
The Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association said
Friday that the change will "result in the loss of approximately
5,000 teaching positions in Catholic schools."
Thompson said they are trying to align Ontario's classroom
sizes with other jurisdictions across Canada.
'Dramatic' reduction
The opposition attacked the proposed changes
and "dramatic" reduction in teachers at Queen's Park
on Monday.
"The minister said no job losses," said NDP education
critic Marit Stiles.
Education Minister Lisa Thompson responded there
would be no involuntary job losses, and accused Stiles of pulling
numbers "out of the cloud."
The proposed changes include increased intermediate and high
school class sizes, new elementary math and sex-ed curricula and a
province-wide ban on cellphones in the classroom during instructional
time.(hub.jhu.edu)
Stiles, citing the TDSB memo, said it's clear what will
happen. "The minister wants to argue that when somebody retires
and [that job is not filled], that's not a job lost," said Stiles.
"Tell that to the teachers who won't be getting a
job."
Thompson accused the NDP of "fear mongering."
The TDSB memo also noted funding cuts for
secondary programming will impact another 82 teaching jobs.
The board estimates the changes, which include
other funding cuts, would save the province between $20 and $25 million.
The government changes come after a months-long consultation
process that, according to PC officials, obtained feedback from 72,000
different stakeholders, including educators, parents and unions.
The Ministry of Education is still holding consultations
about the changes until May 31.
will-lead-to-loss-of-800-public-high-school-teaching-jobs-in-toronto-tdsb-document-shows.html
Ontario’s plan to raise class sizes will lead to loss of 800 public high school teaching
jobs in Toronto, TDSB document shows
By Paul Hunter Feature Writer
Sun., March 17, 2019
The Ontario government’s blueprint to increase class sizes will mean the loss of approximately
800 public high school teaching positions in Toronto, according to a TDSB document obtained
by the Star.
It’s a number that, according to a local teachers union executive, would decimate the city’s
secondary school system
Education Minister Lisa Thompson unveiled changes to Ontario’s education system Friday,
including a back-to-basics math curriculum.
Education Minister Lisa Thompson unveiled changes to Ontario’s education system Friday,
including a back-to-basics math curriculum. (CHRIS YOUNG / THE CANADIAN PRESS)
“No government cuts what amounts to close to 20 per cent of the expert classroom staff
from programming and at the same time says that they are doing their best to help students
succeeed,” said Leslie Wolfe, head of the Toronto local of the Ontario Secondary School
Teachers’ Federation.
“This, to me, is a decimation. They are in the process of manufacturing a crisis in publicly
funded education at the high school level.”
The plan, announced by Education Minister Lisa Thompson on Friday, will bump up the number of
students in each class from Grade 4 to Grade 12. At the secondary level, the average class
size will grow to 28 from 22. In the lower grades, an average of one student will be added
to each class.
The Education Ministry is still holding consultations with families, staff and school boards
but Friday’s announcement was to provide school boards with information to build their budgets
and staffing models.
Read more:
Ford government announces hikes to high school class sizes, but no changes to kindergarten
Opinion | Edward Keenan: Maybe it’s actually a good thing if I don’t understand my kids’ homework
The Toronto District School Board, in a document distributed to school trustees, did the basic math
on the announced changes to gauge the impact on how many teachers will be lost. It calculated that
there will be 216 fewer teachers in Grade 4 to Grade 8 in addition to the 800 at the secondary level.
Approximately another 82 high school positions will be gone with the reduction in funding for
secondary programs.
In protest, classroom teachers began an online campaign over the weekend encouraging each other to
wear black on Monday as a symbolic form of resistence.
More positions will also be lost starting in 2020-21 when students are required to take four of
their their 30 high school credits, one per year, through online learning. Wolfe said “it’s not
catastrophizing” to suggest that will mean 20 per cent of her federation’s almost 5,000 members
will ultimately be elimated under the government plan.
The reductions will take place over four years. Thompson said the changes will come through
retirements, resignations and other attrition. No teacher will lose their job due to the class-size
strategy, she said.
Still, that is a significant number of positions removed from the system, sparking concerns among
educators that smaller, specialized classes will have to be chopped and there will be less
opportunity for students.
TDSB chair Robin Pilkey said the numbers in the TDSB document are extremely preliminary and a
clearer indication of the impact of the government’s plan will come this week when the board does
staffing allocation for the next school year.
“We know it’s going to be significant,” she said. “We are concerned because we want to make sure
kids get as much opportunity as possible. Fewer teachers means fewer different types of classes.
The government has spent a lot of time talking about preparing kids for the future ... (but) if
there are fewer teachers, there’ll be larger classes and less opportunity — fewer courses, I
think, is kind of the logical conclusion. That’s going to be not great for kids who are trying
to figure out what to do with their future.”
To put the loss of teaching positions in perspective, Wolfe said there are approximately 100
secondary schools in Toronto and so that would mean an average of eight educators gone from each
school. Obviously, small schools wouldn’t be losing eight teachers but it offers an idea.
“What I really want to underscore,” she said, “is that while no one may be losing a job, people
need to understand that’s 800 fewer adults in our schools. It’s not about job loss, it’s about
the reduction and expertise in our schools. And it’s about the potential loss of programs that run
with smaller class sizes that serve students who need those smaller class sizes.”
Under the Ontario government’s proposal, which would save about $250 million in the first of year
of a four-year plan, class sizes from kindergarten to Grade 3 would maintain their current caps.
Thompson’s announcement Friday also included a back-to-basics math curriculum, a ban on cellphones
in classrooms for noneducational purposes and revisions to the health and sex-ed curriculum,
including clear provisions for opting out and the opportunity for families to use the eduational
materials online to teach the subject at home.
The e-learning classes will be even larger than 28, with an average of 35 students, according to
a ministry memo obtained by the Star. Some educators expressed concern because there are students
who don’t have a computer at home while others would miss the benefit of personal interaction
that research has shown helps students succeed.
Paul Hunter is a reporter and feature writer based in Toronto. Follow him on Twitter:
@hunterhockey
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2019/03/17/we-have-a-system-in-crisis-says-brant-childrens-aid
-society-after-cuts-lead-to-26-workers-being-laid-off.html
‘We have a system in crisis,’ says Brant children’s aid society after cuts lead to 26 workers
being laid off
By Sandro Contenta Feature Writer
Sun., March 17, 2019
The Ontario government is placing vulnerable children in danger by forcing cuts resulting in 26
child protection workers being laid off at the Brant children’s aid society, the agency’s executive
director says.
The job cuts come as the Brantford area faces perhaps the worst opioid addiction epidemic in the
province, one that has swelled the number of children served by the child protection agency.
“When governments cut child welfare services (managers, front line staff, and support services),
children ultimately die or are allowed by society to live in unbearable, violent and neglectful
conditions,” wrote Andrew Koster, executive director of Brant Family and Children’s Services.
“When governments cut child welfare services (managers, front line staff, and support services),
children ultimately die or are allowed by society to live in unbearable, violent and neglectful
conditions,” wrote Andrew Koster, executive director of Brant Family and Children’s Services.
(JIM RANKIN / TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO)
Andrew Koster, executive director of Brant Family and Children’s Services, expressed the risks
in stark terms in an open letter to the community last Thursday, the day the workers were notified
of the layoffs.
“When governments cut child welfare services (managers, front line staff, and support services),
children ultimately die or are allowed by society to live in unbearable, violent and neglectful
conditions,” Koster wrote.
“With higher caseloads and tight timelines, workers are forced to move from one crisis to another
instead of planning and working proactively with families to prevent future incidents,” he added.
“Despite best efforts, children fall through the cracks and suffer the consequences of insufficient
resources.”
Read more:
How one child welfare agency is building trust
Through the eyes of a CAS front-line worker
Use of 'behaviour-altering' drugs widespread in foster, group homes
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The cri de coeur comes from an executive with almost five decades of experience in Ontario’s child
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and fears the system is at a breaking point.
“We have a system in crisis,” Koster said in an interview Sunday.
Caroline Newton, spokesperson for the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies, says all
eyes will be on the provincial budget this spring. Finance Minister Vic Fedeli has signalled the
government will act to reduce a deficit he places at $13.5 billion.
“We’re watching the coming provincial budget for how communities will be supported to keep
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The Brantford area had the highest rate of emergency ward visits in Ontario due to opioid overdoses
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The Brant job cuts come after the provincial government eliminated the office of the Provincial
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The government transferred some of the advocate’s responsibilities to the ombudsman’s office. But
Irwin Elman, whose role as provincial advocate ends April 1, says the ombudsman’s investigative powers
are far more limited than those of his office, particularly when it comes to children who die or are
harmed while in care.
“There is no doubt in my mind that Ontario is suffering a great loss with the closing of our Office,”
Elman said in a goodbye statement released last week.
The Brant job cuts were imposed by a $1.7-million deficit caused largely by the ministry’s policies,
said Koster, whose agency is based in Brantford, hometown of hockey legend Wayne Gretzky, west
of Hamilton.
For example, the previous Liberal government paid 75 per cent of costs when foster parents committed
to giving children a permanent home, either through adoption or caring for them until they’re 18
years old. Last fall, Premier Doug Ford’s government slashed that funding for all children’s aid
agencies to 25 per cent of costs, Koster says.
For the Brant society, that meant a $300,000 annual reduction in provincial funding, he adds.
The government also reduced Brant’s funding by $700,000 because 50 of the agency’s children were to
be transferred to a newly formed Indigenous children’s aid society. But the transfer process is
slow and many of those children are still with Brant.
Koster fully supports the set up of an Indigenous child welfare agency in the Brantford area. But
he’s angered by the government’s refusal to reimburse funding for the children Brant continues to
care for due to the slow transfer process.
Brant also spent $400,000 on hiring and training staff to operate a new centralized database called
CPIN. The former Liberal government ordered all children’s aid societies to implement the system,
which allows societies to better share information.
But Koster said Brant had to revert to using the old data system when the new Indigenous agency had
concerns with the data being collected under CPIN and refused to adopt it. The government now
refuses to reimburse Brant the $400,000 it spent.
“We’re not in a deficit for anything we’ve done,” Koster says. “It’s because of ministry decisions.”
Koster says his agency, which has about 300 children in foster care, would have run out of money to
pay staff by March 22. He says ministry officials played hardball, and were prepared to see the
agency shut down until early April, when funding for the new fiscal year would be provided.
“That was the most disturbing thing for me,” he says, adding he implemented the layoffs to avoid the
shutdown scenario.
Provincial efforts to identify cost reductions and help Brant stay within its budget began under the
previous Liberal government in 2015, Derek Rowland, press secretary to Lisa MacLeod, Minister of
Children, Community and Social Services, said in an email to the Star. Yet Brant continues to
struggle to stay within budget.
Rowland described the safety of vulnerable children as the provincial government’s “utmost
priority.”
“The ministry does not pay off or forgive children’s aid society deficits,” ministry
spokesperson Trell Huether said in a separate email to the Star, adding that societies determine
their own staffing. By provincial regulation, societies must balance their budgets. Huether said two-
thirds of them do so.
The funding formula for societies, Huether added, is based on the socio-economic needs of a
community, the number of children in care and the volume of abuse investigations it conducts. In
2018-19, the Brant societies received $23.8 million from the government, a 1.8-per-cent increase
from the previous fiscal year, Huether said.
The ministry spends about $1.5 billion annually on a child protection system that serves some
14,000 kids taken from abusive or neglectful parents and placed in foster or group homes. There
are 49 children’s aid societies in Ontario, including 11 Indigenous ones, according to the
ministry’s website.
PCs unveil Ontario's
new sex-ed curriculum, raise high school class sizes
Antonella Artuso
Brian Lilley
Published: March 15, 2019
Updated: March 15, 2019 2:39 PM EDT
LILLEY UNLEASHED: WHAT WILL GERALD SAY? All eyes &
ears on Butts' Justice
Committee testimony!5:20
The province’s new sex education curriculum will push back
learning about gender identity and sexual orientation by a few grades, but will
teach students about the need for sexual consent in the elementary years.
Education Minister Lisa Thompson on Friday unveiled the new
curriculum, which will introduce the topics of gender identity and gender
expression in the second half of Grade 8, a few grades later than the
controversial 2015 curriculum.
Abstinence, bullying, cannabis, concussions and family and
health relationships will be covered in Grades 7 and 8.
In Grades 1-3, students will learn mental health concepts
like resiliency and healthy eating, the government says.
Personal safety, concussions, caring behaviours, preventing
bullying and the proper names for body parts including genitalia are all topics
that will begin in Grade 1.
Students will be taught about puberty, Grades 4-6; consent,
Grades 4-6; sexual reproduction, Grade 5; and sexual orientation, Grades 5-6.
New to the curriculum for Grades 2 and 3 is body image,
consent and online safety.
“To ensure parents are respected, the government will
provide an opt-out policy similar to other jurisdictions,” a government
statement says. “The (education) ministry will also be introducing online
modules for parents who may want to introduce topics at home whenever their
child is ready. Both of these options will be available for the 2019-20 year.”
The wide-ranging announcement confirmed, as earlier reported
by the Toronto Sun’s Brian Lilley, that the province’s math curriculum will
get a complete rewrite to remove the emphasis on discovery math.
“Our government has listened and we are going to get it
right,” Thompson said, accusing the previous Liberal government of pouring $5
billion into “social experiments” like discovery math that she said didn’t
produce results.
Seniority in teacher hiring will no longer be as significant
a factor – for example, French teachers ought to be able to speak French,
Thompson said.
As well, the government is significantly increasing class
sizes in the later years of high school.
Thompson said that while she agrees with the Elementary
Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) that class sizes in Kindergarten to
Grade 3 should stay the same, the government intends to increase the average
class sizes in Grades 4-8 by one student.
Students in Grades 9-12 will see the biggest change, as the
class size average will grow to 28 from 22.
“Not one teacher … will lose their job,” Thompson said.
Liberal MPP Mitzie Hunter called the education rewrite a
lemon.
“The PC education plan will be disastrous for Ontario’s high
school students. If this was a term paper it would get an F,” Hunter said in a
statement. “The Ford plan to raise the average class size will
disproportionately harm small and rural communities.
“Because it’s an average class size this allowed schools to
offer specialized courses that would have lower attendance. These courses will
now be on the chopping block in small and rural school boards.”
AUTISM PARENTS:
Cornwall MPP says staff was right to call cops
Alan S. Hale, Cornwall Standard Freeholder
Published: March 15, 2019
Updated: March 15, 2019 1:32 PM EDT
Cornwall area Tory MPP Jim McDonell Lois Ann
Baker / Postmedia
CORNWALL — Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry MPP Jim McDonell
is standing behind his staff member’s decision to call the police on a group of
parents came into his Cornwall constituency office with their children earlier
this week.
The parents came in to demand they get to speak to someone
about the changes the Progressive Conservative government is making to the
funding model for therapy and support programs for kids with autism.
McDonell is recovering from hip surgery and was not at the
office, but when the parents refused to leave until someone spoke with them,
the situation became testy.
Cornwall police were summoned to have the parents and their
children removed.
In a statement issued Thursday, McDonell did not apologize
for the incident.
Instead, he indicated he understands people were upset, but
that his staff did not feel safe, which is why they called the police.
“Many times, these discussions are very emotional, and those
emotions can run high. I will always ensure that both my constituents and my
staff feel safe during these meetings. In the case that occurred this week,
there were many people who entered the office space, and my staff felt that
they needed support to ensure their safety,” said McDonell.
McDonell also said his office has set up a followup meeting
with the parents, which he said he looks forward to.
But Krysta Ryan, one of the parents who went to the MPP’s
office, said she has not yet been contacted about a followup meeting and finds
McDonell’s response unsatisfactory.
“I would like to see an actual response and not just
something he’s reading that sounds like what every other Progressive
Conservative politician has said,” replied Ryan. “I have not been contacted by
his office, and the fact that they think that the police were necessary to
maintain a safe environment is disgusting.”
McDonell’s executive assistant, Marilyn McMahon-Ayerst,
declined to comment on Tuesday’s events.
A bit after 3 p.m. on Tuesday Ryan and two friends who, like
her, have children with severe forms of autism, arrived at the office in
Cornwall. They had brought their children and demanded to speak with someone
with in-depth knowledge of the autism funding changes and their impact on
services provided through the education system.
“I went in, knowing he was ill … and said ‘I understand he’s
ill, but I just want to talk to someone about the changes to the education
system along with the autism plan,’” recalled Ryan.
A staffer went into an interior office and then re-emerged
to tell the parents that there was no one available to speak with them, and
offered to take their information and have someone contact them.
Ryan said she agreed, and then proceeded to lay out her
concerns about the autism funding changes, including the fact her five-year-old
son depends heavily on public support services and therapy. The funding changes
that are set to come into effect next months, she said, means he will lose
access to the support he needs.
According to Ryan, while she was speaking to the staffer,
one of the children began playing with the blinds inside the office. All the
children were autistic and non-verbal.
She said McMahon-Ayerst emerged from her office, told them
to stop messing with the blinds and that the group of them needed to leave.
Three Cornwall Police Service officers arrived at the scene
and asked the parents to wait outside the office. No charges were laid, and
Ryan praised the officers for their professionalism.
But she had harsher words for McMahon-Ayerst.
“I think part of it was that she over-reacted and frankly, I
think she used the tactics she did to try and bully the parents,” said Ryan.
“I just wanted to speak to somebody, whether it was an
assistant, someone to take down our information, or anyone with first-hand
knowledge of the changes that can’t be misconstrued, but no one wanted to take
the time to clarify anything,” she said.
The changes being made to the autism programming in Ontario
are fairly opaque to those unfamiliar with the system, but the Progressive
Conservatives say they are presenting them as necessary to fix the long wait
lists experienced by other parents of children with autism the Liberal
government failed to address.
Check Krysta Ryan’s Facebook account of her trip to MPP Jim
McDonnell’s office. Note: Contains strong language.
— with files from Megan Gillis
twitter.com/alan_s_hale
TVDSB awaits more details on provincial changes to class
sizes, sex-ed
Updated: March 15, 2019
Education Minister Lisa Thompson, MPP for Huron-Bruce. File
photo
The union representing Ontario’s secondary school teachers
is slamming the province over its plans to increase class sizes while
Southwestern Ontario’s largest school board is encouraged by proposed features
of the new sex education curriculum, two of the sweeping reforms announced by
Education Minister Lisa Thompson Friday.
Thompson announced the Progressive Conservative government
is raising the cap for high school classes to 28 students, six more than is
currently allowed. It will also raise the cap by one student for Grades 4 to 8.
“Without warning the province has declared war on the public
education system,” said Harvey Bischof, head of Ontario Secondary school
Teacher’s Federation.
“This is a shocking and devastating announcement.”
Thompson said Ontario high schools have one of the lowest
student-to-teacher ratios in the country and the change will be phased in over
four years.
But others see job losses and the erosion of the education
system.
“I am deeply concerned about what our students can expect in
classrooms starting in September,” said Toronto New Democrat MPP Marit Stiles,
her party’s education critic.
“This announcement amounts to a very significant reduction
in teachers and. . . it will mean less one-on-one time for students with
educators. We know more teachers mean a better outcome for our students.”
Southwestern Ontario’s largest school board is waiting to
see the what the implications of the province’s newly announced class size
shake-up will be.
“It is too early to determine the impact of changes
announced today by the minister of education. TVDSB senior administrators are
waiting for further details to be released by the province,” said Jeff Pratt,
associate director of the Thames Valley District school board.
The board is pleased there will be no change in kindergarten
to Grade 3 class sizes, and only one student will be added to Grades 4 to 8
class size caps. It is not clear yet what the impact will be of the announced
change to secondary school class sizes.
Board officials are also encouraged by Thompson’s remarks
about the concepts that will be covered in the province’s revamped health and
physical education curriculum.
“In the meantime, the board looks forward to receiving more
information about the changes announced by the minister today,” Pratt said.
The new sex-ed curriculum will replace an interim teaching
plan based on 1998 materials that were put in place last year after the
Progressive Conservatives repealed a 2015 curriculum from the previous Liberal
government. The 2015 curriculum addressed consent, online bullying, sexting,
same-sex relationships and gender identity.
The government said the new document will include teaching
on abstinence, cannabis education and earlier discussions on body image and
consent.
The province says parents will still be able to opt out of
having their kids exposed to certain topics in the sex-ed class, and the
ministry will issue online modules for those who want guidance on discussing
those topics at home.
The full curriculum is expected to be released in May and
implemented in September.
– with files from Canadian Press
Quebec will not
follow Ontario's lead and ban cell phones in class, education minister says
Starting in September, primary and secondary students in
Ontario will not be allowed to have them in class
CBC News · Posted: Mar 14, 2019 7:22 AM ET | Last
Updated: March 14
Starting in September, primary and secondary students in
Ontario will not be allowed to have them in class.(Radio-Canada)
11 comments
Quebec Education Minister Jean-François Roberge says he has
no plans to follow Ontario's lead when it comes to banning cell phones in
classrooms.
Starting in September, primary and secondary students there
will not be allowed to have them in class.
Ontario's Education Minister says the devices "distract
from learning" and that in a recent public consultation, 97 per cent of
respondents supported a ban.
Roberge is a former elementary school teacher. He says he
doesn't want to interfere in the classroom on this issue.
"It's not my plan to take a decision and to impose my
plan with smartphones. I think it's a decision that should [be made by]
teachers and principals," Roberge said Wednesday.
Since the Ontario decision, many critics have warned the
Ford government that its plan will be ineffective and nearly impossible to
enforce.
With files from Cathy Senay
Class size changes, new math and sex-ed programs part of
Ontario's education revamp
Province has committed to maintaining class size cap for
kindergarten and primary grades
Lucas Powers · CBC News · Posted: Mar 15, 2019 4:00 AM ET |
Last Updated: 30 minutes ago
Ontario's Progressive Conservative government revealed the
details about its plans for the public education system Friday. (Brenna Owen)
The Ford government revealed significant changes to
Ontario's education system on Friday, including increased intermediate
and high school class sizes, new elementary math and sex-ed
curricula and a province-wide ban on cellphones in the classroom.
"Our plan will modernize the classroom, protect the
future of the education system and ensure that Ontario students will acquire
the skills they need to build successful lives, families and businesses right
here in Ontario," said Education Minister Lisa Thompson.
Thompson announced the reforms at a morning news
conference at the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto. The changes come after a
months-long consultation process that, according to the government, obtained
feedback from 72,000 different stakeholders, including educators, parents and
unions.
The average class size requirement for secondary Grades
9 to 12 will be adjusted to 28, up from the current average of 22.
The increase would align Ontario "more closely to other
jurisdictions across Canada," the government said in a news release.
Ontario high schools currently have one of the lowest
student-to-teacher ratios in the country, Thompson added, and the change
will be phased in over four years.
"Not one teacher — not one — will lose their job
because of our class size strategy," Thompson told reporters, though she
would not say whether the province would rely on attrition to cut costs.
Thompson also spoke about the changes on CBC's Power
& Politics. You can watch that interview below:
Power and Politics
Significant changes coming to Ontario classrooms
00:00 07:48
Ontario Education Minister Lisa Thompson discusses
significant changes to the province's education system. 7:48
'An inevitable conflict'
Harvey Bischof, president of the Ontario Secondary School
Teachers' Federation, bluntly disagreed with that assessment. According to him,
the move will directly affect some 5,500, or about 20 per cent, of high school
teachers in publicly funded systems province-wide, and about 3,600 OSSTF
members.
"It's a sledgehammer blow to the education system in
Ontario," Bischof said. "There is going to be a massive
resistance."
Class size projections for high school grades are negotiated
at the local level, and the government's changes ensure that there will be an
"absolute impasse at bargaining tables," he said.
"They've set up an inevitable conflict in terms of
negotiating collective agreements next round," Bischof said. "We're
not going to back down on these class size projections that protect the quality
of education for students."
He added that the ministry of education has refused to
provide the OSSTF with definitive estimates of how many teachers will
ultimately be impacted.
Meanwhile, the average class size for intermediate Grades 4
to 8 will increase to 24.5, up slightly from 23.84.
Ontario Premier Doug Ford promised this week that no
"front-line" workers in the province, teachers included, would lose
their jobs as a result of his government's effort to balance the budget. (Chris
Young/Canadian Press)
The Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association says the
change will "result in the loss of approximately 5,000 teaching positions
in Catholic schools."
"This means many schools will not be able to offer the
same number and diversity of programs as they do today. Furthermore, some class
sizes, including those in core subjects such as math, are likely to grow to
more than 40 students," the OECTA said in a news release.
The government committed to maintaining the current caps on
class sizes for kindergarten and primary grades at 29 and 23, respectively.
Changes to class sizes will be implemented over a period of
four years, Thompson said.
Sex-ed overhaul
Meanwhile, Thompson revealed that gender identity and
consent will be taught as part of a new sexual-education curriculum that will
be introduced to schools by the fall. Gender identity, however, will now be
introduced to students in Grade 8 rather than in Grade 2.
The revised curriculum will replace an interim teaching plan
based on 1998 materials that were put in place last year after the
Progressive Conservatives repealed a 2015 curriculum from the previous Liberal
government.
Education Minister Lisa Thompson said the previous Liberal
government tried to introduce "ideology" into Ontario classrooms with
its changed to the province's math and sex-ed curricula. (Chris Young/Canadian
Press)
The 2015 curriculum addressed consent, online bullying,
sexting, same-sex relationships and gender identity.
The province previously held an online consultation on the
issue and an overwhelming majority of those who weighed in through that forum
in the first day opposed
the decision to scrap the 2015 curriculum.
The province says parents will still be able to opt out of
having their kids exposed to certain topics in the sex-ed class, and the
ministry will issue online modules for those who want guidance on discussing
those topics at home.
Thompson provided few details on how the government will
ensure that children are learning certain topics if their parents opt-out of
classroom lessons.
The "core focus," however, will be on
"protecting students physically, socially and emotionally," Thompson
told reporters.
The full curriculum is expected to be released in May and
implemented in September.
'Back to basics' on math
Further, Ontario's new math curriculum will focus on
"fundamentals," Thompson said, with a strong element of financial
literacy. It too will be phased in over four years.
So-called "discovery
math," introduced by the previous Liberal government, will no longer
be used by teachers as a teaching method.
Ontario high schools will also receive a revised curriculum
on First Nations, Métis and Inuit studies, which the province said was
developed in collaboration with Indigenous partners.
The government will also ban cellphones in classrooms during
instructional time, starting next year, except for when teachers want to use
cellphones as part of their lesson, for medical reasons and for students with
special needs.
As part of its wider reforms, the government also plans to
review hiring practices at school boards across the province. It says that
current processes place too much emphasis on "seniority, rather than
specific skills or previous performance, as the most important criteria in
hiring."
The ministry says that "teacher mobility" was a
common concern relayed during consultations it held in January. The government
wants to increase transparency around hiring, and give boards and principals
the authority to "hire teachers based on merit and fit for the role."
With files from Nick Boisvert and The Canadian Press
Budget 2019 will create 'lifelong learning' accounts:
sources
The program, modelled on one in Singapore, is meant to
boost job retraining
David Cochrane · CBC News · Posted: Mar 14, 2019 3:17 PM ET
| Last Updated: March 15
Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau takes questions from
children from the Toronto and Kiwanis Boys and Girls Club after putting on his
new budget shoes for a pre-budget photo opportunity in Toronto on Thursday,
March 14, 2019. (Chris Young/Canadian Press)
The federal government will establish personalized accounts
to help Canadians pay for lifelong learning and skills development in next
week's budget, CBC News has learned.
The specific details of the program weren't shared with CBC,
but two government sources say the government's plan is modelled on a similar
program in Singapore.
The Singapore SkillsFuture program sets up personal accounts
to help anyone over the age of 25 pay for retraining and skills development.
Watch: Canadian Chamber of Commerce's chief economist
on the upcoming budget
Power and Politics
What can we expect from the federal budget?
00:00 07:30
Canadian Chamber of Commerce's chief economist Trevin
Stratton looks ahead to the federal budget and what it might mean for the
economy. 7:30
Under the SkillsFuture program, individual accounts
start with a government-funded opening credit of $500 with the
promise of periodic top-ups. The credit can be used to help pay for training
services selected from a list of pre-approved programs and institutions.
Finance Minister Bill Morneau hinted broadly at the program
during a pre-budget event at a shoe repair shop in Toronto today. The
Kensington Market shop's owner, Lorena Angola, had to take time off from
her old job to retrain as a cobbler.
"In our budget this year that's what we are going to be
thinking about," Morneau said. "How do we help Canadians to take time
off? How do we ensure that they can continue to live their life while they are
taking time off? And how do they pay for their training?"
Government sources would not say how closely the financial
support in the Canadian program would align with what Singapore is offering.
Skills development will be one of the four major themes of next
week's budget, along with pharmacare, support for seniors and housing
affordability.
Budget to be tabled Tuesday
Morneau announced last month that the final budget of the
Trudeau government's current term will be tabled March 19.
"We know there's more to do. That's why I am so pleased
to announce that March 19, we will be introducing budget 2019, the next steps
in our plan to ensure middle-class optimism and an economy that works for all
Canadians," Morneau said in the House of Commons.
A statement released by Morneau's office said the budget
will focus on investments in people and communities and creating opportunities
for future generations, although no specifics were offered.
The Business Council of Canada recently urged Morneau to
include measures in the budget to make Canada more competitive and better able
to handle the shocks of the next economic downturn.
BCC President and CEO Goldy Hyder said the council remains
concerned about skills training, regulation, the energy sector, trade and
Canada's fiscal sustainability.
"Canada's business leaders are concerned about Canada's
economic future," Hyder said in a letter sent to the minister Tuesday.
"Budget 2019 is an important opportunity to introduce
measures to help Canada reach its full potential while preparing for the next
downturn."
Doug Ford's government is a government of grifters: Robyn
Urback
The education minister tried to pass off regular student
funding dollars as an autism-specific boost
Robyn Urback · CBC News · Posted: Mar 15, 2019 4:00 AM ET |
Last Updated: March 15
With this Ontario government, you should always check your
change. (Chris Young/Canadian Press)
Doug Ford's government is a government of grifters.
It claims to be a truck-stop government: "For The
People," and other nonsense. That's while holding $1,600-per-plate fundraisers — known as
"cash-for-access" fundraisers back when the Liberals were doing it —
after gutting the law that the previous administration put in place to
stop wealthy stakeholders from purchasing access to provincial lawmakers. (After
the Liberals had their fill, it should be noted.)
The Ford government lured supporters with frivolous promises
of cheap beer, though its buck-a-beer program barely lasted a few months. And it pegged itself a careful
steward of taxpayer dollars, while wasting resources on a vanity
"news" channel, an unnecessary audit duplicating the work of the
auditor general, and on a show
trial of Liberal MPPs, for whom Ontario voters had already delivered a verdict through last
June's election.
It's the political equivalent of a carnival-hand cajoling
you to a ring toss, though none of the rings actually fit over the
pegs and someone will steal your wallet out of your pocket on your last
throw.
Of all of this government's swindles, however — and I should
point out, the above is a non-exhaustive list — it offered
perhaps the grimiest of grifts earlier this week.
'Additional funding'
Standing before reporters Monday, Education Minister Lisa
Thompson announced what she referred to as "additional funding for our
school boards" to accommodate students with autism spectrum disorder
(ASD). There were some small nuggets: the expansion of after-school development
programs, additional resources for teacher training, and so forth.
But leading them all was the "announcement" that
boards will be eligible for an average of $12,300 for every new student with
autism enrolled in school.
"This funding will allow school boards to make sure
there are proper supports available during the transition from therapy to
school," she said.
Sounds great, doesn't it? And coincidentally timed, too: A
few days after parents rallied outside of Queen's Park to protest the government's
changes on the autism file. Also right as teachers began expressing concern that cutbacks to therapy would mean
students would be sent school unprepared, leaving teachers to somehow make up
the gap.
So there was Thompson, standing by the carnival lights,
announcing $12,300 per student to help ease the transition.
But here's the thing: This was not new money.
The $12,300 figure was projected back in August as the average per-pupil funding available
for the 2018-2019 school year. This is up only slightly from the previous year, when the per-pupil figure was $12,100.
But the increase had already happened — Thompson's
"announcement" was an announcement of the status quo. The same
funds.
And here's the other thing: This funding is not specific to
students with autism. It is not even specific to students with special needs.
The province offers school boards in Ontario $12,300 for any student
newly enrolled in school.
That figure has nothing to do with autism services.
There are other grants under the umbrella of Special Purpose Grants that are intended for accommodating
and supporting students with special needs. But Thomson only cited the $12,300
figure — the one that applies to every pupil.
The overall special education budget, meanwhile, remains
around $3 billion.
Thompson's announcement was really a reiteration of existing
funds that apply to all students — presented as a significant funding
boost for children with ASD. A shiny trinket to mislead and distract angry
parents.
Granted, if you read the fine print, you will notice one
small change: School boards can apply for that $12,300 in the last few months
of the school year if students with ASD enrol after April 1. Previously,
boards would have had to wait until the next designated headcount date, which
is Oct. 31.
That's it. That's the $12,300 announcement. A procedural
change, sold as additional funds for students with autism. The government
coupled it with a few small, but legitimate, resource boosts, and hoped no one
noticed.
That was Monday.
Having sold casual onlookers on "additional"
autism funding, the Ford grift packed up and
moved along, repackaging a previously announced federal
infrastructure program as a $30-billion initiative launched by Ontario. It
then placated parents with a ban on cellphones in classrooms, which sounded like
action — until you realized that the government left enforcement
to schools, rendering it another impotent policy and spectacular
distraction.
And there you have a small sample of the Ford
government greasiness, reminding you that with this administration, you always
check your change.
About the Author
Robyn Urback
Columnist
I almost said 'no' to vaccinating my son. My doctor took
the time to change that
I am vaccinated. I believe in vaccines. But I was
crawling with anxiety when it came time to vaccinate my son
Tracy Hilliard · for CBC News · Posted: Feb 25, 2019 4:00 AM
ET | Last Updated: February 25
Hesitantly, I managed to say 'I believe in vaccines. I know
they work. But I'm very scared right now. What happens if ... something
happens?' (Tina Lovgreen/CBC)
A small amount of patience and understanding from a
physician can change everything for a concerned parent. And that small effort
can have a big impact on the larger issue of public health.
Right now there's a measles outbreak in Vancouver. The measles virus is
incredibly contagious, and can cause lifelong and even deadly consequences.
Those of us who live in other provinces aren't necessarily
safe. Ontario, where I live, has seen a pronounced drop in vaccination
rates for measles. According to an 2016-2017 assessment, just 91 per cent of seven-year-olds are
vaccinated compared to 94 per cent of 17-year-olds. And while those still might
seem like good numbers, the required vaccination coverage to stop the spread of
the measles is 95 per cent or more. All of that means that one infected person
could cause a disaster here in Ontario, too.
I was one of those parents who almost said "no" to
vaccinations. But my doctor changed all that in just a few minutes.
Online information war
Back in 2012, I was a first-time mom. I wasn't sleeping
much. I was pumping milk every three hours because my son could not latch. And
I was in the middle of an information war on the internet.
Late nights pumping were spent reading Facebook and
"mommy blogs," giving me hope that I was doing all the right things,
that I was "crunchy" enough to be a good mom. I wanted so badly to be
a good mom. But the one thing that kept coming up in these groups was the
outrage about vaccinations.
I am fully vaccinated. I believe in vaccines. I know how
they work. I know they do not cause autism, and that anti-vaxxers had been
spreading falsehoods about them. I recognized that they were taking VAERS
(Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System)-reported "possible side
effects" to mean "this is exactly what will happen," but in the
back of my mind, I also knew that they were not entirely risk-free. Vaccines
can have side effects.
- Here's
what you need to know about the measles outbreak in Vancouver
- Doctors
report uptick in teens, young adults choosing to vaccinate against
parents' wishes
So as I prepared for my trip for my two-month-baby's
wellness check, I felt nervous. What if all the nasty comments piled on me by
internet anti-vaxxers came true? What if he was the rare exception to the rule,
and today I went home without him? By the time I saw my doctor, I was crawling
with anxiety. Hesitantly, I managed to say "I believe in vaccines. I know
they work. But I'm very scared right now. What happens if ... something
happens?"
My doctor could have easily gotten angry at me. I've heard
of stories about how doctors will kick you right out of their practice for
"daring to question." But my doctor didn't even look upset. She told
me exactly what she would do if my son reacted in any negative way to the
vaccine.
She told me the most likely reactions, their timeline, and
which were most dangerous. She told me exactly what to look for. She gave me
her word that anything like anaphylaxis would most likely happen in the first
30 minutes after the shot, and that she was going to get me to sit and wait
that long to make sure that nothing would happen.
'She told me she was there for me'
She also told me, that should my son start to
react, there were interventions at her office to keep him alive for the short
drive to the nearby hospital, where he would be immediately admitted. She told
me she was there for me, and gave me the information to weweather the following 48 hours, after which he would be
clear of all the known adverse effects of the vaccine.
I remember crying and apologizing, but she was firm,
"You are a good mom for asking. Not asking and just saying 'no, we're not
going to do it' would be worse."
So for any parent who has heard the horror stories and might
be afraid to ask: ask. There are things medical professionals can do to help
your child if the worst should happen. All you are doing is giving yourself
information and that's a good thing to do, especially if you are scared.
As for doctors: Thank you for helping us through these
times. If I could encourage you to do anything, remember that you are the last
person we talk to before saying "yes" or "no." Hesitant
parents you might encounter are not necessarily strident anti-vaxxers — many
are just nervous moms or dads who worry about doing the right thing for
their children, and need information and reassurance. So provide data, or even
an action plan, and help us make the right choice. Take that extra time.
As for my son? He barely noticed the shot. He had no
reaction in the first 30 minutes. He was fussy for a while and had a low-grade
fever. Both cleared in a day or so. He is now six and fully vaccinated, on
time, without any adverse effects.
This column is part of CBC's Opinion
section. For more information about this section, please
read our FAQ.
Maybe it’s actually a good thing if I don’t understand my
kids’ homework
Fri., March 15, 2019
Near as I can tell, people have been complaining about the
“new math” for roughly as long as there has been math.
The common-sense critics of ancient Greece, for example,
resisted representing zero as a number, because, duh, everyone knows nothing
can’t be something.
Education Minister Lisa Thompson unveiled changes to
Ontario’s education system Friday, including a back-to-basics math
curriculum. (Chris Young / THE CANADIAN PRESS)
The numerals we use today were introduced to Europe by at
least 1202, but didn’t replace the Is and Vs of Roman numerals in common use
there until the invention of the printing press roughly CCLXXX years later. You
imagine some stern dad of the time staring at his kid’s homework and shaking
his head at the absurdity of the need to line digits up in columns representing
factors of 10 that reflect the logic of the decimal system.
“In my day, we learned to sum DXXVI plus LVIII in our
heads…”
This was true when I was growing up when my aunts and uncles
complained that the system of long division I was learning was ridiculous. It
remains true today, when everyone is convinced the “discovery math” their kid
is learning is convoluted bafflegab producing a generation of innumerate fools.
That last bit, it seems to me, was behind the announcement
of changes to the math curriculum by provincial
Minister of Education Lisa Thompson on Friday. There were, what seem to me
at first read, to be encouraging elements among the changes, to be sure: more
funding for math learning, extra help for schools specifically struggling, more
emphasis on training in math for teachers. Given that our students’ performance
in math shows some struggles by international standards, these are
understandable enough steps.
But that all was the fine print to a “back to basics” pledge
that will, as my colleague Kristin Rushowy reports, emphasize “fundamental
concepts and skills” and discourage “discovery math.” If you’re unfamiliar, discovery
math is a term not really used in our school system but embraced by critics
for teaching
students a variety of ways to attack a problem and think through how
numbers work.
You can see genuinely amusing videos online, such as one comparing
the time it takes for a teacher to explain one approach to multiplying
two-digit numbers to doing it the old-fashioned way, then brewing a coffee, and
drinking it.
The thing is, that convoluted-seeming explanation of a
relatively simple problem is meant to show kids how and why multiplication
works the way it does, and to break down the numbers and problems into groups
of problems that are easy to solve. It’s another way of understanding those
numbers and the equation, which may help some students who grasp it do even
much more difficult problems quickly in their heads. The teacher isn’t teaching
them to calculate — that’s easy. She’s teaching them what the math means. It
isn’t a substitute for traditional times tables (which my kids, in Toronto
publicly-funded schools, have been memorizing the past few years) and methods,
but a supplement to them.
Looking at these approaches — especially as presented in the
text books my kids bring home — I admit sometimes my gab is as baffled by the
words on the page as much as the next guy’s. This can be frustrating when
you’re trying to help with homework.
I am convinced that this is actually what fuels a lot of
complaints about math curricula through the ages. Mom or dad staring at their
kid’s homework and saying, “I don’t get it.”
And then thinking, “Wait, this is Grade 5. I passed Grade 5.
If I don’t get it, the problem must be with the math, not with me” and then
channelling their bewildered frustration into a sense of anger.
Personally, I’ve learned to try to resist the impulse.
Instead, I want to lean into it a bit. Because I want my kids to be smarter
than I am, so maybe it’s actually a good thing if I don’t understand their
homework. You know, as long as they understand it.
Maybe I come to this more quickly than some other parents
because there’s a lot of my children’s homework I don’t understand, because
it’s written in French, which is a language I have very little facility with.
That I cannot function or understand one of Canada’s official languages has
been a source of regret for me. I wanted my kids not to feel that regret, and
to have the opportunities and expanded perspective a second language offers.
Which is why I enrolled them in a French immersion program.
All of which means I often get to feel stupid when I try to
help them with their homework, because they need to translate it for me before
I can even tell what’s going on. But that’s a good thing.
I know that the things I already know and am good at are
things they can learn from me, if I’m concerned they’re missing them in school.
It’s the things I don’t know, like French, that I hope they can get from
school.
French, and calculus. My expectation is that some of the
math concepts that seem silly or strange or convoluted to me (“why the heck
don’t they just put the numbers in a column and add?”) will eventually make
them better at math than I am. I have nothing against the “basics” or the
“fundamentals” that Thompson and her government love so much. I just hope they
get more than that too — the stuff the “inquiry-based”
systems and striving for “automaticity” (which is learning to do things
easily in your head) of the new math are supposed to teach.
I’m not opposed to changing the system. I hope the new
resources and emphasis helps. I think they should keep adjusting the system to
make it better, and addressing problems that show up in student performance.
It’s just that they don’t have to dumb it down to make it
understandable to me. If I look at my kids’ math homework and it looks like a
foreign language, that could be a good thing, not a problem.
Edward Keenan is a columnist based in Toronto covering urban
affairs. Follow him on Twitter: @thekeenanwire
Ford government announces hikes to high school class
sizes, but no changes to kindergarten
By Kristin Rushowy Queen's
Park Bureau
Fri., March 15, 2019
The Ford government is boosting class sizes starting in
Grade 4 through to Grade 12 while promising no layoffs — though teacher unions
expect about 4,500 positions will be eliminated each year over the next four
years.
The change prompted Harvey Bischof, head of the Ontario
Secondary School Teachers’ Federation, to predict “massive resistance” by his
members over changes he calls “devastating” — and one he estimates will see 20
per cent of high school teaching positions eventually phased out.
Education Minister Lisa Thompson said despite moving from an
average of 22 to 28 students per classroom, the plan “will not see one teacher
lose their job.”
Thompson unveiled a number of education reforms Friday
morning at the Ontario Science Centre, including a back-to-basics math
curriculum, tweaking of the sex-ed curriculum, and a plan to have each high
school student take one online credit each year.
Class sizes will remain the same from kindergarten to Grade
3, and from Grades 4-8 will increase by one student.
Thompson also announced changes to the health/sex-ed curriculum,
which keeps lessons on learning the proper names of body parts in Grade 1 but
moves discussion of gender identity and gender expression to Grade 8 from Grade
6.
While parents have always had the option of removing their
children from sex-ed classes, the government said in a written release that
“there will be clear provisions for parents who wish to exempt their child or
children from sexual health education and online modules will be available for
parents who want to discuss sexual health topics at home, whenever they feel
their child is ready.”
Because of human rights obligations, school boards typically
don’t allow students to opt out of lessons on issues of inclusion, and it is
unclear how the government will accommodate families who don’t want their
children to learn about gender identity.
The ministry is currently working to devise an opt-out plan
on that issue.
The new health lessons will also talk about mental health
and wellness in the primary years, consent and body image starting in Grade 2.
Education Minister Lisa Thompson announced Friday that the
government will not alter kindergarten class sizes — and also did not announce
any changes to the program. (Chris Young / The Canadian Press file
photo)
Some details about the education reforms had already been
revealed, including a ban
on cellphones in classrooms unless teachers require them for instructional
purposes, as well as a “back
to basics” math plan with training for teachers.
“We will continue to look for better ways to improve student
learning. We will continue to adapt curriculum to address the needs of the
modern world,” Thompson also said. “And we will continue to take responsibility
for every dollar spent.”
For high school teachers, local collective agreements
contain class size caps — based on government funding an average class size —
and the gap between the current situation and what the government is proposing
is “unbridgeable,” said Bischof, president of the OSSTF.
The province currently funds for an average of 22 students,
but many academic-level classes in particular already hit 30 and above, to
offset smaller, specialized classes. By raising the average to 28, the classes
with more students could get even larger.
“What they’re trying to do is undermine the value of our collective
agreements in terms of protecting class-size caps,” Bischof said. “
“I’m telling you we’re absolutely not going to be in a
position where we’re going to give away the class-size caps that we have
achieved over years of negotiations.”
Thompson said the class-size changes will mean less than 1
per cent of savings in the $28 billion spent overall in education in the first
year. No figures were available for subsequent years.
It’s unclear what the impact of class-size changes could be
on course offerings, or to rural schools with lower enrolment.
University of Toronto Professor Charles Pascal said good
teaching is the most important factor in student success — even more than class
size — but “how these things are discussed and developed is the key.”
The Ford government “has an abysmal track record when it
comes to collaboration with those who are charged with implementing grassroots
change,” added Pascal of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.
“Unless there is a timely, effective and respectful
collaboration with high school teachers and those who represent them about
these ideas, there will be serious and unhelpful chaos.”
Last September, the government launched public
consultations, seeking input on science/technology/engineering and math (STEM)
instruction; the skilled trades and the health/sex-ed curriculum, including
mental health, via online surveys and telephone town halls.
At the time, Thompson said “our goal is to prepare Ontario
students for success, improve their academic achievement and equip them with
the tools needed to enter the working world.”
In total, the government heard from 72,000 people.
Thompson has since said an overwhelming number of
participants were concerned that the issue of consent
was not adequately covered in the sex-ed curriculum, and promised that
would be a part of the revamped lessons.
During last year’s election campaign, Premier Doug Ford
promised to scrap the current sex-ed curriculum, introduced in 2015, to appease
social conservatives who felt some material was objectionable and not
age-appropriate, especially the information on gender identity.
After taking office, schools were instructed to use a
curriculum largely based on the old, 1998 curriculum, which critics derided as
out of date. The move to the old curriculum was the subject of court and human
rights challenges given LGBT issues are not explicitly included in it.
Earlier this year, the government also reached out to
teacher and support staff unions, as well as trustee associations, to ask about
class sizes and class-size caps, hiring practices and full-day kindergarten,
noting it needed to trim the provincial deficit.
Full-day kindergarten was not a part of Friday’s
announcement.
The government, however, said it will continue to consult on
that and elementary class sizes, as well as hiring processes.
In Ontario, full-day kindergarten classes are capped at 29
children, and boards must have an overall average of 26 students. From Grades 1
to 3, 90 per cent of classes must have 20 or fewer students, with the remainder
no bigger than 23.
From Grade 4 to 8, boards may have an average of 24.5
students per class.
On Wednesday, Premier Doug Ford would not commit to keeping
class sizes at current levels, but said “the people of this province will be
quite thrilled” at the government’s education reforms.
“We’re focusing on the students; we’re making sure the
students get the best education they can, “ Ford said. “I can tell you, we are
going back to the basics. We’re going to make sure our students understand
math, reading, arithmetic.”
Provincial math tests show scores have been dropping in recent
years, which is a trend affecting many countries.
Thompson’s plan, which comes into effect fully in the fall
of 2021, will provide boards with funding for a “math learning lead,” and
numeracy supports for 1,000 struggling schools. These amount to roughly
one-quarter of all elementary and secondary schools.
All new teachers will have to pass a mandatory math exam
before they can be certified, and the province’s 16,000 middle-school teachers
will have to earn additional qualifications in math.
The government will also direct teachers to “focus on
fundamental concepts and skills,” and move away from “discovery math,” as well
as boost online resources.
Liberal MPP and former education minister Mitzie Hunter
tweeted that “today’s math announcement from @LisaThompsonMPP is the same
one I made when I was minister. The Ford government literally copied my math
homework.”
The Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association estimates
a loss of 5,000 teaching positions with the class-size changes from Grades 4
through 12, and fewer course choices and bigger classes in core areas like
math.
“There is no doubt that increasing class sizes will make
Ontario’s intermediate and high school classrooms more crowded, more chaotic,
and less productive,” said Liz Stuart, OECTA president.
“Teachers will not be able to provide the same level of
attention to individual students, and students with special needs will not get
the support they require to reach their full potential.”
Kristin Rushowy is a Toronto-based reporter covering Ontario
politics. Follow her on Twitter: @krushowy
PCs unveil Ontario's
new sex-ed curriculum, raise high school class sizes
Antonella Artuso
Brian Lilley
Published: March 15, 2019
Updated: March 15, 2019 2:39 PM EDT
LILLEY UNLEASHED: WHAT WILL GERALD SAY? All eyes &
ears on Butts' Justice Committee testimony!5:20
The province’s new sex education curriculum will push back
learning about gender identity and sexual orientation by a few grades, but will
teach students about the need for sexual consent in the elementary years.
Education Minister Lisa Thompson on Friday unveiled the new
curriculum, which will introduce the topics of gender identity and gender expression
in the second half of Grade 8, a few grades later than the controversial 2015
curriculum.
Abstinence, bullying, cannabis, concussions and family and
health relationships will be covered in Grades 7 and 8.
In Grades 1-3, students will learn mental health concepts
like resiliency and healthy eating, the government says.
Personal safety, concussions, caring behaviours, preventing
bullying and the proper names for body parts including genitalia are all topics
that will begin in Grade 1.
Students will be taught about puberty, Grades 4-6; consent,
Grades 4-6; sexual reproduction, Grade 5; and sexual orientation, Grades 5-6.
New to the curriculum for Grades 2 and 3 is body image,
consent and online safety.
“To ensure parents are respected, the government will
provide an opt-out policy similar to other jurisdictions,” a government
statement says. “The (education) ministry will also be introducing online
modules for parents who may want to introduce topics at home whenever their
child is ready. Both of these options will be available for the 2019-20 year.”
The wide-ranging announcement confirmed, as earlier reported
by the Toronto Sun’s Brian Lilley, that the province’s math curriculum will
get a complete rewrite to remove the emphasis on discovery math.
“Our government has listened and we are going to get it
right,” Thompson said, accusing the previous Liberal government of pouring $5
billion into “social experiments” like discovery math that she said didn’t
produce results.
Seniority in teacher hiring will no longer be as significant
a factor – for example, French teachers ought to be able to speak French,
Thompson said.
As well, the government is significantly increasing class
sizes in the later years of high school.
Thompson said that while she agrees with the Elementary
Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) that class sizes in Kindergarten to
Grade 3 should stay the same, the government intends to increase the average
class sizes in Grades 4-8 by one student.
Students in Grades 9-12 will see the biggest change, as the
class size average will grow to 28 from 22.
“Not one teacher … will lose their job,” Thompson said.
Liberal MPP Mitzie Hunter called the education rewrite a
lemon.
“The PC education plan will be disastrous for Ontario’s high
school students. If this was a term paper it would get an F,” Hunter said in a
statement. “The Ford plan to raise the average class size will
disproportionately harm small and rural communities.
“Because it’s an average class size this allowed schools to
offer specialized courses that would have lower attendance. These courses will
now be on the chopping block in small and rural school boards.”
AUTISM PARENTS:
Cornwall MPP says staff was right to call cops
Alan S. Hale, Cornwall Standard Freeholder
Published: March 15, 2019
Updated: March 15, 2019 1:32 PM EDT
Cornwall area Tory MPP Jim McDonell Lois Ann
Baker / Postmedia
CORNWALL — Stormont-Dundas-South Glengarry MPP Jim McDonell
is standing behind his staff member’s decision to call the police on a group of
parents came into his Cornwall constituency office with their children earlier
this week.
The parents came in to demand they get to speak to someone
about the changes the Progressive Conservative government is making to the
funding model for therapy and support programs for kids with autism.
McDonell is recovering from hip surgery and was not at the
office, but when the parents refused to leave until someone spoke with them,
the situation became testy.
Cornwall police were summoned to have the parents and their
children removed.
In a statement issued Thursday, McDonell did not apologize
for the incident.
Instead, he indicated he understands people were upset, but
that his staff did not feel safe, which is why they called the police.
“Many times, these discussions are very emotional, and those
emotions can run high. I will always ensure that both my constituents and my
staff feel safe during these meetings. In the case that occurred this week,
there were many people who entered the office space, and my staff felt that
they needed support to ensure their safety,” said McDonell.
McDonell also said his office has set up a followup meeting
with the parents, which he said he looks forward to.
But Krysta Ryan, one of the parents who went to the MPP’s
office, said she has not yet been contacted about a followup meeting and finds
McDonell’s response unsatisfactory.
“I would like to see an actual response and not just
something he’s reading that sounds like what every other Progressive
Conservative politician has said,” replied Ryan. “I have not been contacted by
his office, and the fact that they think that the police were necessary to
maintain a safe environment is disgusting.”
McDonell’s executive assistant, Marilyn McMahon-Ayerst,
declined to comment on Tuesday’s events.
A bit after 3 p.m. on Tuesday Ryan and two friends who, like
her, have children with severe forms of autism, arrived at the office in
Cornwall. They had brought their children and demanded to speak with someone
with in-depth knowledge of the autism funding changes and their impact on
services provided through the education system.
“I went in, knowing he was ill … and said ‘I understand he’s
ill, but I just want to talk to someone about the changes to the education
system along with the autism plan,’” recalled Ryan.
A staffer went into an interior office and then re-emerged
to tell the parents that there was no one available to speak with them, and
offered to take their information and have someone contact them.
Ryan said she agreed, and then proceeded to lay out her
concerns about the autism funding changes, including the fact her five-year-old
son depends heavily on public support services and therapy. The funding changes
that are set to come into effect next months, she said, means he will lose
access to the support he needs.
According to Ryan, while she was speaking to the staffer,
one of the children began playing with the blinds inside the office. All the
children were autistic and non-verbal.
She said McMahon-Ayerst emerged from her office, told them
to stop messing with the blinds and that the group of them needed to leave.
Three Cornwall Police Service officers arrived at the scene
and asked the parents to wait outside the office. No charges were laid, and
Ryan praised the officers for their professionalism.
But she had harsher words for McMahon-Ayerst.
“I think part of it was that she over-reacted and frankly, I
think she used the tactics she did to try and bully the parents,” said Ryan.
“I just wanted to speak to somebody, whether it was an
assistant, someone to take down our information, or anyone with first-hand
knowledge of the changes that can’t be misconstrued, but no one wanted to take
the time to clarify anything,” she said.
The changes being made to the autism programming in Ontario
are fairly opaque to those unfamiliar with the system, but the Progressive
Conservatives say they are presenting them as necessary to fix the long wait
lists experienced by other parents of children with autism the Liberal
government failed to address.
Check Krysta Ryan’s Facebook account of her trip to MPP Jim
McDonnell’s office. Note: Contains strong language.
— with files from Megan Gillis
twitter.com/alan_s_hale
Half of students at Waterloo Region’s public high schools
have low well-being, survey shows
As a group, they feel less positive about friends, adults
and after-school activities than they did just a few years ago.
OPINION Mar 08, 2019 Waterloo Region Record
Just two out of three students in the region’s public board
earn their diploma within four years of high school, a rate in Ontario’s bottom
quarter. If we can help high school kids become more resilient, they might not
only be happier but more academically successful, too. - Julie Jocsak , St.
Catharines Standard file photo
Whoever thinks the teenage years are an extended picnic in
the sunshine should walk the halls in one of Waterloo Region's public high
schools.
Half of the students you meet will have low well-being. Many
will be struggling to get the sleep or proper nutrition they need. As a group,
they feel less positive about friends, adults and after-school activities than
they did just a few years ago. Only one in four is deemed to be thriving.
The rest? They could, in the language of old report cards,
do much better.
These are the sobering findings the Waterloo Region District
School Board discovered when it questioned 27,428 students in grades 4 to 12
last spring in a voluntary, online well-being survey. The results are
depressing but worth knowing.
They're a call to action, too — for the school board,
teachers and parents alike, something we should all ponder as local kids leave
the classroom pressure-cooker behind for the brief respite of March break. Just
two out of three students in the region's public board earn their diploma
within four years of high school, a rate in Ontario's bottom quarter. If we can
help high school kids become more resilient, they might not only be happier but
more academically successful, too.
To be fair, the survey results are a cause for concern but
certainly not panic. The board measured students' optimism, happiness,
self-esteem, absence of sadness and general health. Those who responded
negatively to just one of these five measures were deemed to have low
well-being.
That made it hard to wind up in the camp of thriving
students. This is the first time such a survey has been taken, too, which means
nobody knows whether the situation is improving, deteriorating or the norm.
It's also worth noting that far from being a carefree, idyllic age, the teenage
years have always been difficult. They're the years that teens emerge from
their safe, childhood cocoon, spread their wings and fly into a big, new adult
world with all its attendant wonders and uncertainties.
Moreover, in today's fast-paced, wired world, teens must
navigate uncharted social media waters where dangers unknown to their parents —
such as cyberbullying and sexting — lurk.
The region's public board is absolutely right to be
concerned about the welfare of its students and is using this survey as a tool
to improve their lives. Its biggest test now is finding ways to help those
young people.
Here are a few suggestions worth discussing: because
transitions are often so disruptive to young lives, the board should look
harder at phasing out middle schools for grades 7 and 8, leaving only one
transition from elementary to high school. Starting the high school day later —
at 10 a.m., for instance — might allow students to get more precious hours of
sleep. Teens generally need more rest than either younger kids or adults.
Teaching practical coping skills such as time management
could help students feel more on top of their workload. And just as schools
promote physical health, they could find new ways to enhance mental health.
Some students advocate teaching "mindfulness" — focusing on the
present moment, exploring the broader perspective on life that can make daily
challenges more manageable. Why not offer such classes? Philosophy has its
consolations.
Our schools work hard to teach our teens all about the
world. Now, it seems, they also need to teach them how to be happy in it.
Anti-vax parents want their unvaccinated kids back in
school — and a judge in New York said no
The children - some of whom are as young as preschool age
- just have to wait until the measles outbreak in New York clears
A measles vaccine is shown on a countertop at the Tamalpais
Pediatrics clinic Friday, Feb. 6, 2015, in Greenbrae, Calif. Eric Risberg/AP
file photo
Reis Thebault, The Washington Post
March 14, 2019
8:21 AM EDT
In a county at the epicentre of New York’s worst measles
outbreak in decades, a group of parents is pushing to get their kids back in
school. The problem? The children aren’t vaccinated.
Normally, children and their families are able to claim a
religion-based exemption from required vaccinations. But, Rockland County’s
health department has said, these are not normal times. Across New York, there have
been more than 300 confirmed measles cases, more than 150 in New York City and
146 in nearby Rockland County. In Rockland, most of the cases were found in
those who were unvaccinated and under the age of 18.
In December, the alarming outbreak compelled county
officials to take the drastic – and, they say, unprecedented – step of banning
unvaccinated children from attending certain schools that had vaccination rates
lower than 95 percent.
Months later, the parents of more than 40 banned children at
Green Meadow Waldorf School sued the Rockland County health department, asking
a federal judge to allow the students to return to class. This week, U.S.
District Court Judge Vincent Briccetti denied their request, ruling that it
wasn’t in “public interest” to allow the children to go back to school
“While no one enjoys the fact that these kids are out of
school, these orders have worked,” said the county’s attorney, Thomas Humbach,
in a statement to the local Journal News. “They have helped prevent the measles
outbreak from spreading to this school population.”
But the parents have said the ban, which the county calls an
“exclusion order,” has “caused and continues to cause irreparable harm” to them
and their kids, according to the lawsuit.
While no one enjoys the fact that these kids are out of
school, these orders have worked
For the children, the order has disrupted both their school
and social lives, the filing says. In the parents’ case, their “intimate,
constitutionally protected life choices … have been trammeled.”
Green Meadow is a private Waldorf school that, like others
around the country, promotes spiritual development. There haven’t been any
cases of measles confirmed there, the New York Times reported.
“What Rockland County has done is remarkably irrational in
every conceivable way,” Michael Sussman, the parents’ lawyer, told the Times.
But officials worry that the school’s proximity to the
outbreak puts its students at greater risk.
The county’s consternation is part of a broad, national
concern over the anti-vaccination movement, punctuated by severe measles
outbreaks from the Pacific Northwest, to South Carolina and New York. The World
Health Organization even dubbed “vaccine hesitancy” one of the top global
threats of 2019.
In dramatic Capitol Hill testimony last week, 18-year-old
Ethan Lindenberger, now famous for vaccinating himself against his mother’s
wishes, warned about the dangers of anti-vax misinformation, which, studies
have shown, spreads quickly through social media sites.
After Lindenberger’s appearance, Facebook announced its plan
for combating anti-vax propaganda and false information on its platform. Google
and Amazon have taken similar steps.
He is confused, given his young age, about why he isn't
allowed on his campus
States have also taken measures to ensure minors have access
to vaccinations. In South Carolina, Oregon and elsewhere, patients under 18 are
allowed to ask for vaccinations without parental approval. In New York, two state
lawmakers recently introduced a similar bill and gained support from the
American Academy of Pediatrics.
“Often adolescents and young adults have a clearer grasp of
what kinds of health care decisions make the most sense for them,” the New York
chapters of the academy said in a statement to The Associated Press. “These
young people have a right to protect themselves from diseases that can easily
be prevented by immunizations.”
At Green Meadow, the vaccination rate was just 33 percent
when the December ban took effect, the Journal News reported, citing the
county’s data. Since then, the county said it has risen to 56 percent, though a
school’s spokeswoman told The Times the share was actually 83 percent – either
way, short of the mandated threshold.
The school is complying with the county health department,
its spokesperson said, and will welcome its students back when it is legally
allowed.
In the meantime, though, the children – some of whom are as
young as preschool age – just have to wait until the outbreak clears. One
mother, who has chosen to keep her 4-year-old unvaccinated, told local media
that her child is distressed.
“He is confused,” she said, “given his young age, about why
he isn’t allowed on his campus.”
EXCLUSIVE: New
Ontario math curriculum goes back to the basics
Brian Lilley
Published: March 12, 2019
Updated: March 12, 2019 11:08 PM EDT
Elementary school students will go back to the basics when
it comes to math, teachers can count on new training and parents should plan on
receiving additional tools to help their kids with math homework.
This is all part of a major overhaul of Ontario’s failing
math curriculum.
The full curriculum overhaul will be unveiled by Education
Minister Lisa Thompson in coming days, but the strategy is laid out in
documents obtained by the Toronto Sun.
“Discovery Math is gone, it has failed our children,” a
senior government source said.
Instead of Discovery Math, a system proponents say “turns
traditional math on its head,” schools in Ontario will return to tried and true
methods.
Yes, rote learning will be part of it which means students
memorizing the times tables once again, but the new math curriculum will also
be aimed at helping students gain the skills they need for life.
“Whether it is coding, engineering or balancing their own
budget, students need these skills,” a government official said.
For years, Ontario’s math curriculum has been a problem.
File photo (THE CANADIAN PRESS)
While headlines have focused on fights over sex education,
math scores have been dropping.
The most recent test scores for Grade 6 students showed that
less than half met the provincial standard, a major drop from years past.
In 2010, 61% of students in Grade 6 met the provincial
standard. By 2014, that number was down to 54% before falling to today’s
pitiful 49%.
In Grade 3, the numbers look a little better with 61%
meeting the provincial standard in the most recent round of testing. But back
in 2010, test results showed 71% met the provincial standard.
The full change over from today’s curriculum to the new one
is expected to take four years.
During that time, the province plans to invest in teacher
education, help school boards establish “Math Leads” and introduce “Math
Facilitators” at the lowest 1,000 performing schools in Ontario.
Math leads will work within their school boards to help both
teachers and students improve. They will lead teacher training and lead the
roll-out of the new curriculum.
New teachers will receive a certain amount of math training
and must pass a test by the spring of 2020. The plan also calls for existing
teachers to get extra training.
The province will provide funding for teachers to acquire
“additional qualifications” for those leading classes in Grades 6, 7 and 8.
Teachers obtaining the new qualifications will move up their
pay grids faster, while students can expect to learn from instructors with
specialized math knowledge.
The province also wants to focus on the lowest-performing
schools, often schools at the lower end of the income scale. Those schools will
get math facilitators to coach teachers and principals and identify “learning
gaps” in math that can be targeted for special attention.
Finally, parents will have access to a digital curriculum
designed to allow them to assist their children with homework and in
understanding the concepts taught in class.
Ontario’s students are running into trouble with math
because they have been failed by the political leaders who were charged with
running the system.
After more than a decade of chasing fads and trendy
curriculum ideas, Ontario’s students will now get a math program that is tried
and true.
Time will tell if it has the desired effect, but sticking to
the current path simply isn’t acceptable.
INCENTIVES FOR TEACHERS
The province will allocate at least $4 million to offer
incentives to teachers to gain “additional qualification” courses in math.
These funds would be aimed at teachers leading classes in Grades 6, 7 and 8.
Under the Ford government’s plan, teachers would receive a
subsidy of between 55%-75% for the cost of their additional math courses.
While many already have a math specialist designation, the
contract most teachers operate under would provide an additional incentive to
gain the accreditation. Teachers operate on an 11-step salary grid and the
additional qualification would allow them to advance up the pay scale faster.
The province wants to move towards all teachers in Grades 6,
7, and 8 holding a math qualification by the 2020-21 school year.
EQAO BY THE NUMBERS
Ontario’s Education Quality and Accountability Office tests
students for reading, writing and math skills achievement in Grade 3 and Grade
6. The new math strategy looks to work with the EQAO office to improve student
performance and test results.
The following EQAO scores show the number of students
meeting expectations annually and steadily declining math achievement in both
grades.
Grade 3
2010 – 71%
2012 – 68%
2014 – 67%
2016 – 63%
2018 – 61%
Grade 6
2010 – 61%
2012 – 58%
2014 – 54%
2016 – 50%
2018 – 49%
LILLEY: Math changes
get thumbs up
Brian Lilley
Published: March 13, 2019
Updated: March 13, 2019 9:09 PM EDT
Classroom in Brantford, Ont. Brian
Thompson / Postmedia file
Education advocates are giving the Ford government a
thumbs-up on plans to revamp Ontario’s math curriculum.
Revealed exclusively in Wednesday’s Toronto Sun, documents
obtained by the Sun describes the plan as a move away from
‘Discovery Math’ for Grades 1 through 8, as well as implementing a more
traditional mathematics curriculum that includes learning times tables and
other basic skills by rote and improving teacher training in math.
“It’s important that kids understand how to do the
principles of math,” said Maddie Di Muccio, president of the Society for
Quality Education.
She said there may be a place for Discovery Math in higher
grades, but children need to learn the basics and build a foundation
beforehand.
“It’s so important to learn things like multiplication
tables, addition, subtraction … those are the fundamentals that help guide
Discovery Math,” Di Muccio said.
Over the past several years, standardized test scores have
fallen to the point where just 49% of students in Grade 6 met provincial
standards last year.
Brian Dijkema, Program Director in Work and Economics at the
think tank Cardus says both employers and colleges and universities have
noticed students leaving the school system lack necessary math skills.
“Everytime that you talk to an employer they say, ‘We have
the people but they don’t know how to read a tape measure,” he said.
From manufacturing to the tech world, Dijkema said there’s
increase in the need for math skills at a time when the quality math
instruction has been going down.
Like Di Muccio, Dijkema said the school system needs to
implement a traditional curriculum to give children a basic math foundation.
“If you talk to any mathematician, they say math works on a
principle of starting with one part of the scaffolding and you build on that,”
Dijkema said.
If that base isn’t secure, he said, the top will start to
creak.
On Wednesday during an event in Cambridge, Ont., Premier
Doug Ford pledged the full curriculum, to be unveiled soon, will focus on
helping both students and teachers improve on math.
“We’re making sure that our Grade 6 students are no longer
ranked the lowest in the country when it comes to math tests,” Ford said.
Part of the new plan will include better mathematics
training for those going through teachers college, as well as skills upgrades
for those already in the system.
“One third of those teachers that are teaching the Grade 6
math test, they failed the test as well. So we need to put more training with
our teachers and focus on our students,” the premier said.
In addition, the plan also allows parents access to a
digital copy of the curriculum so they can help their kids understand their
math homework.
“What I really liked was the access to the parent’s portal.
That’s a great step in the right direction,” Di Muccio said.
The full revised curriculum — including details on sex-ed —
is due to be released within days.
'Not enough has
changed': Advocate calls for action before more children die like Tina Fontaine
Manitoba girl's great-aunt calls Child Advocate report
'heavy' and 'heartbreaking'
Aidan Geary · CBC News · Posted: Mar 12,
2019 3:00 AM CT | Last Updated: 6 hours ago
Thelma Favel stands in front of a mural dedicated to her
grand-niece Tina Fontaine. Favel hopes Tina Fontaine's death will create
positive change for the thousands of Manitoba children in care. (Jaison
Empson/CBC News)
Tina Fontaine didn't receive a single counselling
session before she died — even though multiple organizations knew the
teen was in dire need of help as she struggled with grief and addiction, a
report on her death revealed Tuesday.
When her father was killed in 2011, victim services failed to provide the then-12-year-old with promised counselling, and years later as she spiralled into addiction and sexual exploitation, the child welfare system failed to help her, according to the report by Manitoba's Child Advocate.
Many of the same barriers to care that faced the troubled teen remain in the path of the province's children in need today, said Daphne Penrose.
"Children are going to die if we don't make changes," Penrose said Tuesday at the release in Fontaine's home community of Sagkeeng First Nation, Man. "They're going to die in this way if we don't get resources for them to access."
When her father was killed in 2011, victim services failed to provide the then-12-year-old with promised counselling, and years later as she spiralled into addiction and sexual exploitation, the child welfare system failed to help her, according to the report by Manitoba's Child Advocate.
Many of the same barriers to care that faced the troubled teen remain in the path of the province's children in need today, said Daphne Penrose.
"Children are going to die if we don't make changes," Penrose said Tuesday at the release in Fontaine's home community of Sagkeeng First Nation, Man. "They're going to die in this way if we don't get resources for them to access."
Tina's body, wrapped in a duvet weighted down by rocks, was
pulled from Winnipeg's Red River on Aug. 17, 2014. Her death triggered national
outrage and inspired local advocacy groups to mobilize street patrols. No one
has ever been convicted of a crime in connection with her disappearance and
death.
"Not enough has changed since Tina died in 2014,"
said Penrose. "This can't be another report that gets shelved."
The 115-page report made five recommendations to four provincial departments to try to close the gaps found in the system, urging improvements to victim services for kids, the creation of safe, secure and home-like treatment facilities for at-risk youth and exhorting the province to act on recommendations for child and youth mental health services made in a 2018 report.
The 115-page report made five recommendations to four provincial departments to try to close the gaps found in the system, urging improvements to victim services for kids, the creation of safe, secure and home-like treatment facilities for at-risk youth and exhorting the province to act on recommendations for child and youth mental health services made in a 2018 report.
Prior to the release of the report, Fontaine's great-aunt
Thelma Favel told CBC News the document contains many "heavy" and
"heartbreaking" details.
"It's awful. Things I didn't even know," she said
after a five-hour briefing last week from Penrose.
Favel said she learned new insights into how troubled
Fontaine's parents were, especially her biological mother.
"That family was doomed from the beginning," she
said.
Tina Fontaine's body was pulled from the Red River in
Winnipeg in the summer of 2014, wrapped in a duvet cover and weighted down with
rocks. No one has been convicted of a crime in connection with her
death.(Submitted by Rose Fontaine)
Signs missed
The report, which included references to interviews with
family and friends and files from agencies including the RCMP,
Winnipeg Police Service and Manitoba Victim Services, found escalating
indications Tina needed help didn't lead to actions to help her.
Jurisidictional issues about which agencies were responsible
for her care started with the death of her father and confusion over her legal
guardian — despite the fact Favel had cared for her for a decade.
Ultimately, poor co-ordination between agencies meant important information,
including red flags warning that she was being sexually exploited, were left
out as various agencies dealt with her case, the report found.
See children's advocate
Daphne Penrose explain why Manitoba needs to act fast:
CBC News Manitoba
Daphne Penrose highlights urgency of improving services for
youth
WATCH
00:00 02:07
Advocate Daphne Penrose said the changes she recommends need
to be acted upon quickly to prevent other children from facing the same
barriers as Tina Fontaine. 2:07
The report also found the system's failure of
the Fontaine family didn't begin with Tina. Her mother was also
involved with Child and Family Services, and the report found workers did
little to intervene when they learned her mother was being sexually exploited
as a child.
Tina Fontaine's early childhood included encounters with CFS
before she started living with Favel, who was a stabilizing and nurturing force
in her life, the report says. The document says the 2011 beating death of Tina's
father, Eugene Fontaine, when she was 12, came at a crucial time in her
adolesence.
As well as a lack of grief counselling after her
father's death, Tina wasn't given help to work on a victim impact statement for
the sentencing of two men convicted in his death or permitted to write a
combined statement with her family, the report found.
After her father's death, Tina started missing school, the
report says. By the time she was suspended for a second time in April 2014,
absenteeism was "chronic" and "severe," it continues. It
found no action was taken by the school to address her missed classes and she
never returned to school after the second suspension.
In November 2013, she ran away from home to Winnipeg to
visit her biological mother and child welfare workers placed her in a shelter
for two days before her family in Sagkeeng could pick her up, the report says.
In January 2014, medical personnel failed to establish a follow-up plan when
she went to Pine Falls Health Complex with self-inflicted cuts to her arm.
The report describes jurisdictional issues among the five
CFS agencies involved in Tina's file, and a lack of co-ordination between
them when Favel flagged concerns she was being sexually exploited by men
online in April 2014.
When the teen arrived in Winnipeg that
summer, Favel again had frequent contact with three CFS agencies and
RCMP, the report says, but with no safe and secure placement, Tina wound up
staying at shelters and a hotel.
In early August 2014, after she told her CFS agency she was
spending time with a 62-year-old man who used meth, the CFS agency dropped her
off with contracted care workers at a hotel in Winnipeg — the only placement
option available, the report says. When she walked away shortly after being
dropped off, it was the last time she was reported missing before her body was
found.
Favel has long contended that one of the main ways the
child welfare system failed Tina was a lack of counselling after her
father died.
Favel says she repeatedly
asked SagkeengCFS for help getting counselling for her
niece the summer she went to Winnipeg. She said they told her to go to another
agency because Tina wasn't in Sagkeeng. That agency told her it couldn't
help because of a jurisdictional issue.
"I don't know how many times the door closed. I said,
'Please just help me,'" Favel said prior to the release of the
report.
5 recommendations
Under the Advocate for Children and Youth Act, the advocate
has broad powers to access records many people never see because of
privacy legislation. She can order documents from Child and Family Services,
the school system, police and the health system if she believes they
are relevant to her investigation.
The report recommends that:
- Manitoba's
government develop safe, secure and home-like treatment facilities,
after analyzing Alberta's Protection of Sexually Exploited
Children Act and Drug-Endangered Children Act.
- Manitoba
Families revamp the way it handles missing youth, especially sexually
exploited youth.
- Manitoba
Justice improve victim support services for children.
- Manitoba
Health, Seniors and Active Living act on youth mental health supports
as recommended in the
2018 Virgo Report.
- Manitoba
Education and Training review the way it deals with absentee kids,
suspensions and expulsions, with the goal of reducing the latter; this
builds on a previous
recommendation from the child advocate in a report on the 2016 death of an
Indigenous teen in care.
The plan needs to ensure resources are
"prioritized in rural and remote locations to ensure equitable
service levels for children and youth regardless of where they are
living," the report states.
The advocate is also allowed to monitor the government
compliance, which Penrose said she will do publicly.
'We want Tina to rest'
Favel didn't attend the presentation of the
report. Close friend Marilyn Courchene, who spoke on Favel's behalf, said the
stress was too great.
She said the family wants peace.
"We want Tina to rest. We want to move forward in our
healing. We want to be able to be left alone," she said.
"It's been a long journey for them. The impacts of all
this stuff happening from Day One [to] the present has been a lot to
carry."
Courchene didn't speak to the contents of the report,
explaining that community grandmothers need time to review it and hold a
healing circle.
Read the full report below. On mobile? Find it here.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Aidan Geary
Reporter
Big changes are
coming to Ontario's autism program — here's what you should know
Ontario is moving to a means-tested, direct funding model on
April 1
Lucas Powers · CBC News · Posted: Mar
11, 2019 12:45 PM ET | Last Updated: March 12
Hundreds of people protested the Progressive Conservative
government's overhaul of the Ontario Autism Program at Queen's Park on March 7,
2019. Many parents say the changes will leave them unable to afford essential
therapies for their children with autism. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)
67 comments
The Progressive Conservative government's recent changes to
Ontario's autism program have once again made the issue a political flash
point.
The controversial
revisions prompted exasperated parents to protest
on the lawn at Queen's Park in a scene reminiscent of just a few years
ago, when many of the same people and groups demonstrated
against a Liberal government over its own revamp of autism
services.
The subject is complex
and deeply emotional for those who know it intimately in their own
lives, and many families are touched by it. One in 66 Canadian children is
diagnosed with the neurological condition, the Public Health Agency of
Canada reported in 2018, and according to Autism Ontario about 100,000
people in Ontario, including 40,000 children, are on the autism spectrum.
On February 6, Lisa MacLeod, the minister of children,
community and social services, unveiled the expansive
changes to the Ontario Autism Program at a news conference in Toronto.
She said they were necessary to ensure that 23,000 children on the province's
therapy wait list would have access to necessary services within 18 months.
Many children, she added, were waiting more than two years
to begin therapy. Further, MacLeod said the government would provide a
one-time injection of $100-million that it said would keep the program running.
However, some parents have said the changes will reduce
the total hours of therapy available to children, and cost families more money
out of pocket.
In the weeks since the announcement, the autism program has
dominated headlines and debates at question period. Many families, therapy
providers and school administrators say they are unnerved and confused about
what comes next.
CBC Toronto has answers to some common questions below:
What therapies exist for children with autism?
To unravel why changes to the Ontario Autism Program have
stoked so much controversy, it's important to understand the therapies that
exist and how the program facilitates access to those treatments.
Autism is a "neurodevelopmental disorder with
impairments in social communication and a pattern of repetitive stereotyped
behaviours. Onset is early in childhood and the presentation changes with
development over the life span," according
to a leading research agency.
It is experienced on a spectrum, and therefore there is no
one-size-fits-all approach to treating those living with the condition. There
are, however, evidence-based interventions that have proved effective in
helping children with autism.
Applied
Behavioural Analysis, commonly called ABA therapy, is the most widely used
treatment. Repetition and positive reinforcement are used to help children
learn skills they may not other pick up on their own. It's usually done in a
small setting, and ABA is most effective when children start it between two and
five years old. In its most intense form, known as Intensive Behavioural
Intervention (IBI), children interact one-on-one with a trained
professional.
ABA can be very expensive, and it is not without
controversy. However, the previous provincial government's Ontario Autism
Program was established to help families access and pay for ABA
therapies.
What did the program look like under the previous
government?
In March 2016, the previous Liberal government said it
would invest $333 million over five years in an autism program that would
integrate Intensive Behavioural Intervention and Applied Behavioural Analysis.
Funding was to be based on an assessment of a child's particular needs.
Initially, the Liberals said, only children between the ages
of two and four years old would qualify for intensive therapies. After fierce
push back from a coalition of parents and advocacy groups that included
protests and a campaign called #Autismdoesntendat5, former premier Kathleen
Wynne backtracked, eliminating the age cap, investing an additional $200
million and speeding up delivery by one year.
Former Ontario premier and current Liberal MPP Kathleen
Wynne went back to the drawing board in 2016 after her own government's
revamped autism program was harshly criticized by families. (Aaron Vincent
Elkaim/Canadian Press)
Funding was given to regional service providers who
maintained waiting lists of families in need of financial support.
Once a child reached the top of the list, the therapy was
funded in full. The government also introduced a direct funding option,
which gave families the choice to accept direct service or spend their
government-allocated dollars however they saw fit in the private sector.
There are currently about 8,400 children receiving ABA
therapy under this regime.
What changes did the PCs introduce?
Citing the years-long wait list and overspending by the
Liberals, the PCs scrapped the previous plan and moved to a means-tested model
of direct funding. How much a family receives will be based on the age of their
child and net income, rather than the severity of their child's
condition.
As of April 1, families with children under six years old
will be eligible for $20,000 per year, to a lifetime maximum amount of
$140,000. Once a child turns six, funding drops to $5,000 per year until they
are 18.
Lisa MacLeod, the minister responsible for children,
community and social services, has rebuffed any suggestion that the government
should consider revising it's new Ontario Autism Program. (Chris
Young/Canadian Press)
Children who enter the program at older than six are
eligible for up to $5,000 per year, up to a maximum of $55,000 by the time they
turn 18.
Money provided through the program can be spent on services
of their choice, including ABA therapies, respite care and technological aids.
The government is calling the financial assistance provided to each individual
family a "childhood budget."
Because funding is based on a sliding
scale, only families earning an annual net income of $55,000 or less per
year will qualify for the maximum amounts available through the program.
Families that bring in more than $250,000 in net income annually are not
eligible for any funding.
The PCs have also announced extra
funding for public school boards that take on new students with
autism, some of whom will now receive therapy at school due to the
changes.
Besides the funding model, what else has changed?
Right now in Ontario, families access funding through one of
nine regional agencies. Moving forward, however, the PC government plans to
establish a single, independent intake agency that will handle all requests for
financial assistance. The province says the agency will be up and running
within one year from April 1.
The intake agency will also counsel families on what
services may be best for their child.
Further, the government has also introduced some other
revisions in an effort to streamline how children are assessed and diagnosed.
CBC News
Ontario mother speaks out against changes to autism program
WATCH
00:00 00:24
Lisa Yakeley's five-year-old daughter has autism and
requires intensive therapy. Under Ontario's new autism program, her family
won’t be able to afford the therapy she gets now, which costs about $100,000 a
year. 0:24
There are currently five publicly-funded "diagnostic
hubs" in Ontario staffed by trained professionals who specialize in Autism
Spectrum Disorder. According to the province, there are some 2,400 children
across Ontario on a wait list to see specialists at these facilities.
In an effort to clear the wait list and connect
children with services more efficiently, the government says it's doubling
funding to the hubs over two years.
"Evidence shows that when children start behavioural
intervention between ages two and five, they gain improvements in cognitive and
language development, are better prepared for school and have better long-term
outcomes in adulthood," the ministry of children, community and social
services says on its website.
Parents of children with autism at the severe end of the
spectrum can pay as much as $80,000 per year for therapy services. (Evan
Mitsui/CBC)
Why are some people angry about the changes?
There are a number of reasons why many parents and autism
advocacy groups say they oppose the impending changes.
Families with children with severe forms of autism will be
hardest hit. Those children can require upward of 40 hours of Applied
Behaviour Analysis therapy per week — services that can cost
between $50,000 and $80,000 annually. Further, some parents also need to pay
for things like speech therapy, tutoring and aids for school. With those added
costs, some families are facing yearly costs of $100,000 or more.
Because the new funding model is based on age and family
income rather than a child's needs, many will be left to cover much of
these significant expenditures out of pocket. One couple who spoke to CBC
Toronto at a protest, for example, said through tears that they are planning
to sell their home to help pay for their son's treatments.
The changes also mean that some children with autism will
need to spend far more time in school, because their parents can no longer
afford therapy in an appropriate setting. Some who used to attend class
for a few hours a week, in some cases as little as a half-day per week, will
now be going to school full time.
CBC News
Changes to Ontario autism program leave family struggling to
cope
WATCH
00:00 00:27
Christine Clayton and her husband paid thousands to fund
their son Miles' autism therapy. Under the new program, the family isn't sure
how they'll afford the $85,000 per year therapy. 0:27
The Ontario Principals' Council has formally
asked MacLeod to delay implementation of the new program so that
school boards can prepare for the significant changes, saying that many schools
lack staff who are qualified to help children with autism participate in
classroom setting.
However the government shows no signs of stopping its
changes.
Finally, some parents have said that there is a significant
deficit in the number of qualified, private-sector care providers in the
province, especially in rural areas. It's unclear how that challenge will be
addressed.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lucas Powers
Senior Writer
Lucas Powers is a Toronto-based reporter and writer. He's
reported for CBC News from across Canada. Have a story to tell? Email
lucas.powers@cbc.ca any time.
With files from The Canadian Press
Saskatchewan Appeal
Court hears case for funding non-Catholic students in Catholic schools
STEPHANIE TAYLOR
REGINA
THE CANADIAN PRESS
PUBLISHED MARCH 12, 2019 UPDATED 4 HOURS AGO
A lawyer for the Saskatchewan government has told the
province’s top court that the government interprets religious neutrality as
providing funding for schools without requiring a religious test.
Tom Irvine presented the province’s case Tuesday in its
appeal of a judge’s ruling that prohibits funding of non-Catholic students
attending separate schools.
Irvine told the Appeal Court that separate schools and
public schools are both part of Saskatchewan’s education system, and separate
schools have more constitutional protection than public ones.
A judge ruled in 2017 that provincial funding for
non-minority faith students attending separate schools infringed on equality
rights and religious neutrality. Justice Donald Layh said the key issue was a
policy of funding separate schools based solely on student enrolment without
regard to students’ religion.
Irvine said that ruling means the government is required to
ask families and students attending separate schools what their religion is and
to consider religion when it comes to distributing funds.
“That is not religious neutrality,” he said.
Because school attendance is closely tied to access to
funding, the ruling would result in religious segregation, Irvine argued.
“This conception of religion neutrality would require the
government to restrict access to a publicly funded school based solely on
religion,” he said. “The government should not be asking people their religion
as a condition of accessing a public service.”
The Appeal Court is set to hear arguments over two days.
The dispute began in 2003 when the Yorkdale School Division,
now called the Good Spirit School Division, shuttered its kindergarten-to-Grade
8 school in the town of Theodore because of declining enrolment. The division
planned to bus its 42 students to the community of Springside, 17 kilometres
away.
In response, a local group created its own Catholic school
division and opened St. Theodore Roman Catholic School.
Good Spirit School Division filed a lawsuit in which it
argued that the new school division was not created to serve the community’s
Catholics, but rather to prevent students from being bused to a neighbouring
town.
The 2017 ruling caused concern among parents and with former
premier Brad Wall, who at the time warned it could lead to overpopulated public
schools and possibly empty some Catholic schools.
Dwight Newman, who teaches law at the University of
Saskatchewan, says he wouldn’t be surprised if the case ends up in the Supreme
Court.
“These questions on how to read religious freedom today,
alongside other parts of the Constitution, are a challenging legal question.”
He says the province wants to win in court, so it doesn’t
need to rely on the notwithstanding clause in the Charter of Rights and
Freedoms to keep funding students who attend Catholic schools, regardless of
their religion.
The Saskatchewan Catholic School Boards Association believes
the charter is being used to force the government to discriminate based on
religion.
The Alberta Catholic School Trustees’ Association and the
Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association are intervenors in the appeal.
Both provinces fund separate Catholic schools.
Ford government to boost school funding to deal with
influx of students with autism
By Kristin Rushowy Queen's
Park Bureau
Mon., March 11, 2019
Boards will be getting additional funding to help with
hundreds of new students with autism expected to arrive in classrooms next
month, as critics accused the province of downloading kids’ behavioural therapy
needs onto Ontario schools.
The Ford government was warned by boards about the impact of
the new autism program that reduces funding for thousands of families who are
now expected to turn to their local schools looking for services — starting in
two weeks’ time.
Lisa Thompson, Ontario's Minister of Education, scrums with
reporters in Toronto in an Aug. 9, 2018, file photo. (Chris Young /
THE CANADIAN PRESS)
In anticipation of the imminent influx of students with
autism, Education Minister Lisa Thompson announced that the government would
provide schools about $12,300 per new student. Schools receive that amount for
every kid enrolled; however, under previous rules they could be eligible for
the funds only up to March 31. But school boards had been writing to Thompson,
as well as Community and Social Services Minister Lisa MacLeod, with their
concerns about how the controversial autism overhaul could create an
unsustainable burden on schools as of April 1, when the new program takes
effect.
A large protest last week drew hundreds of families to
Queen’s Park.
“These supports will start, absolutely, immediately,”
Thompson said Monday in Ottawa. “We are making changes to school board funding
so supports will be in place for this school year…This funding will allow
school boards to make sure there are proper supports available during the
transition from therapy to school.”
Typically, any new student doesn’t generate additional
funding after March 31 of any school year, so the government’s announcement
essentially extends that deadline.
Students with autism already in the school system part-time
would have been funded at the $12,300 amount so no additional monies will be
provided.
A Monday memo to boards from the deputy education minister,
obtained by the Star, also gave them the go-ahead to bring in extra staff to
support these students, despite advising
them late last month to hold-off on any hiring.
Cathy Abraham, president of the Ontario Public School
Boards’ Association, cautioned that the services students receive in schools
“is not going to be the same as what they have — it’s not the same as
intensive, one-on-one behavioural training.”
Educators, said autism advocate Laura Kirby-McIntosh —
herself a teacher — are “already stretched to the max. If this government
thinks they can blow up the Ontario Autism Program and say ‘oh, it’s OK,
teachers will do it’ — no.”
Thompson also said the province will boost training for
teachers — both online and as “additional qualification” courses — and also
give boards money to expand after-school programs for students with autism.
In total, it has pledged $6.1 million for after-school
activities, $1 million a year for three years to pay for the “additional
qualification” for teachers, and $2 million to the Geneva Centre for Autism to
run online training for school staff.
The government has come under
considerable criticism from parents
and school
boards for the changes, which will see limited lifetime budgets for
children with autism. It will expand funding to more families, but many
families will receive less.
MacLeod has said the government’s priority is to eliminate a
23,000-long wait list in the next 18 months under
a new system that provides up to $20,000 a year for children under 6 — with
a lifetime maximum of $140,000. Children older than that can access up to
$5,000 a year up to age 18, with a maximum of $55,000.
However, kids with severe needs can require up to $80,000 a
year in therapy.
MacLeod’s ministry has allocated $321 million in overall
funding for autism services.
Read more:
Toronto’s Catholic board and Chair Maria Rizzo called
Monday’s announcement “a small gesture that signals that this government has
picked up on the pleas about children with autism and their families.
“Although there is some movement on behalf of this
government to address how to support students with autism, it is simply not
enough and there are still too many unanswered questions.”
Harvey Bischof, head of the Ontario Secondary School
Teachers’ Federation, said the government did not consult with unions ahead of
the funding announcement, and the amount “tells me they had not at all
considered the unintended consequences of kids in therapy coming into
classrooms.”
“They hadn’t thought it through.”
University of Toronto Professor Charles Pascal said his
concern “is not with the potential of new resources and the framework, it is
with the hastiness to solve a complex problem.
“When it comes to effective implementation, speed kills,”
said Pascal of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, and a former
deputy education minister.
Kristin Rushowy is a Toronto-based reporter covering Ontario
politics. Follow her on Twitter: @krushowy
Protesters rally at Queen’s Park against autism program
changes by Ford government
By KRISTIN RUSHOWY
Queen's Park Bureau
Thu., March 7, 2019
Busloads of protesters descended on Queen’s Park on Thursday
to rally against changes to the province’s autism program — with families
coming from Ottawa, Sudbury and Windsor.
With a controversial new program starting April 1,
protesters wanted to turn up the heat on the Ford government.
In a statement released by education workers just before the
protest began, five unions — representing teachers, early childhood educators
and support staff — implored the government to “put the needs of children
first” and “rethink its rash decision-making on the Ontario Autism Program.”
As protesters outside began chanting, inside the legislature
the opposition NDP grilled Ford on what Leader Andrea Horwath called an
“absolute disaster” of a plan.
“No one believes in this autism program,” said New Democrat
MPP Monique Taylor, adding “parents have mobilized across the province to fight
back . . . this government has failed every step of the way.”
Premier Doug Ford called autism “the hardest file I’ve ever
dealt with” but said after the election, his government “saw systemic problems
throughout the whole system” that needed to be fixed, and noted his government
has pledged $321 million in annual funding.
NDP Leader Andrea Horwarth (left) and Social Services
Minister Lisa MacLeod are battling over the recent changes to the autism
program by the Ford government. Under the new rules, parents will be eligible
for up to $20,000 a year for children under 6 — with a lifetime maximum of
$140,000. (TORONTO STAR)
Laura Kirby-McIntosh of the Ontario Autism Coalition said
parents “fought the Liberals when they cut off treatment at age 6, and then
later at age 5, and now we’re protesting against the Conservatives,” adding
“this is not a partisan issue.”
Parents and school
boards have been warning that public schools are not ready for an
influx of students seeking therapies their families can no longer afford under
the revamped system, and many are asking the government to put a pause on the
changes.
The York Region District School Board wrote to both
Education Minister Lisa Thompson and Lisa MacLeod, minister for children
community and social services, saying the situation — combined with a provincial
directive to freeze hiring — “presents some obvious and consequential
challenges in providing essential services for children about to undertake a
significant transition.”
Boards are also looking to the government for numbers on how
many children to expect. Without that information, it will be “difficult to
prepare for the increase in enrolment and attendance and ensure we have the
resources in place,” said the letter from chair Corrie McBain.
“. . . In light of these difficulties, we are requesting
that the government reconsider its implementation plan to ensure that children
are not adversely affected by these changes.”
Regional service providers are also expressing concern,
including Kinark, Surrey Place and Thames Valley Children’s Centre.
MacLeod has said the government’s priority is to clear the
therapy wait list of 23,000 children in the next 18 months, creating a system
where families can choose the services they want.
Parents will be eligible for up to $20,000 a year for
children under 6 — with a lifetime maximum of $140,000. Children older than
that can access up to $5,000 a year up to age 18, to a lifetime maximum of
$55,000.
However, children, with severe needs can require up to
$80,000 a year in therapy.
When asked Wednesday by New Democrat MPP Monique Taylor
about the calls to hold off on the changes, MacLeod said “of course, there is a
diversity of opinions, whether it’s parents, whether it is service providers,
whether it’s those who have lived experience with autism.
“But I will tell you, the opinion of this government is that
we are going to clear the wait-list of 23,000 children, or three out of four
children in Ontario.”
She later told reporters that she and her aides would not
attend the protest because of concerns about their personal safety.
Kirby-McIntosh said her advocacy group has been planning the
rally with a number of supporters since the changes were announced last month.
“Ford promised us that under his government we would never
have to go back onto the lawn of Queen’s Park (to protest.) He said he would be
with us 1,000 per cent,” Kirby-McIntosh said. “He lied. He has completely
abandoned us. The betrayal is phenomenal.”
As for schools, Thompson, speaking to reporters Wednesday at
Queen’s Park, said her ministry is working with boards to help with the
transition to the new system come April 1, when an influx of students into the
public system is expected given the new funding scheme will see many families
unable to continue to afford behavioural therapies.
The $321 million for autism services pledged by the Ford government
is the same amount the previous Liberal government budgeted for this fiscal
year.
Kristin Rushowy is a Toronto-based reporter covering Ontario
politics. Follow her on Twitter: @krushowy
Kids’ mental health struggles impact gender wage gap for
moms
By BRANDIE WEIKLE
Special to the Star
Thu., March 7, 2019
Toronto mom Jodi Echakowitz has been advocating within the
mental-health system since her child, Alex, was in kindergarten.
“I was literally getting called almost daily to go and pick
Alex up because the teachers couldn’t cope,” says Echakowitz, whose child, now
21, identifies as non-binary and uses the pronoun they. Alex was diagnosed with
social anxiety disorder in senior kindergarten, but at the time the teachers
simply just “had no clue how to deal.” At one point, Echakowitz would joke that
she really should have a bed at the school since she practically lived there.
Youth with a Skylark counsellor at MLSE
Launchpad. (CHRISTINA GAPIC / CHRISTINA GAPIC)
Therapist and social worker Lydia Sai-Chew is CEO of
Skylark, a charitable agency that provides services to children and youth who
are experiencing mental health challenges. She hopes to see Toronto dotted with
mental-health walk-in clinics like the two run by Skylark. (EMMA
TURNER / NONE SUPPLIED)
Youth with a Skylark counsellor at MLSE
Launchpad. (CHRISTINA GAPIC / CHRISTINA GAPIC)
Therapist and social worker Lydia Sai-Chew is CEO of
Skylark, a charitable agency that provides services to children and youth who
are experiencing mental health challenges. She hopes to see Toronto dotted with
mental-health walk-in clinics like the two run by Skylark. (EMMA
TURNER / NONE SUPPLIED)
Youth with a Skylark counsellor at MLSE
Launchpad. (CHRISTINA GAPIC / CHRISTINA GAPIC)
Echakowitz was running a public relations business out of
her home office at the time and had a few consultants working with her who
could pick up the slack.
“If I was working in an office environment, I have no doubt
I would have been fired.”
Alex would later be diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome (now
referred to as level 1 autism), and that would begin the process of accessing
the right kind of care. Today, Alex is studying social work at Seneca College.
Echakowitz has no regrets about taking the lead in helping
Alex. Her husband, a general contractor, was less able to leave a construction
site in the middle of the day, but he’d take over when he got home from work.
Still, she says, “trying to find a balance between
supporting a high special needs kid and being there for work was super
challenging.”
Echakowitz is not alone. According to Children’s
Mental Health Ontario’s 2019 report card, one in four Ontario parents have
missed work to help a child with anxiety and one in three is currently seeking
mental-health services for a child. The cost to the provincial economy of
parents missing work to attend to children’s anxiety issues alone is estimated
at a whopping $421 million a year.
“You need to have everything stable at home in order to be
able to concentrate on your work outside of the home and in order to build a
career,” says therapist and social worker Lydia Sai-Chew, CEO of Skylark, a
charitable organization that provides services free of charge to children and
youth who are experiencing mental-health problems, as well to their families.
“If you have a kid at home that you’re worried about who
can’t go to school because of their anxiety, for you to go off to work is very
challenging. You’re pulled in different directions.”
Accessing services in a timely fashion is critical, says
Sai-Chew, which is why Skylark now operates two mental-health drop-in clinics
where children and youth can see a psychotherapist straight away. Although
services are for kids with mental-health challenges are improving, there’s
still a long way to go — particularly if, like most people, you can’t afford to
pay the expensive hourly fees for private psychotherapy, psychiatry or other
services.
“You can have an intake appointment and then sit on the
wait-list for service for a year, six months,” says Sai-Chew. “Even one month
is too long to sit on a wait list when you’ve got a child who is filled with
anxiety and can’t go to school or is at school and having anxiety and
behavioural issues there and disrupting a parent’s work life.”
It’s often the mom who has used up all their vacation and
sick time to deal with their child’s appointments, says Sai-Chew.
“The faster you can get help, the faster your kid is going
to be happier and healthier, and things can go on as they should.”
Mom of three Andrea Page can speak to that. Page has been
grappling with “a long family history of mental-health problems and trauma,”
and first got her start as an advocate a decade ago when her eldest son was 10.
Each of her kids has needed varying degrees of support with mental-health
challenges in the years since.
“I have had my income impacted,” says Page. “I am
self-employed so I have some flexibility, but that doesn’t mean that I haven’t
missed work or cancelled clients numerous times so that I could be present.”
Where once she had a jam-packed schedule of in-person fitness classes for moms
conducted all over Toronto, she’s now shifted much of her business to providing
online fitness coaching instead with just a few in-person classes.
Page says she has noticed some marked improvement in the
availability of services since she first started her advocacy journey 10 years
ago. “As much as things are still difficult now it was impossible then,” she
says. It wasn’t unheard of to face waiting lists that were two or more years
long, she said. In some cases the services available weren’t appropriate for
kids.
That’s why Sai-Chew at Skylark says her hope is that one day
Toronto will be dotted in mental-health walk-in clinics like theirs for every
family has one within walking distance.
Page now frequently advises other parents on how to navigate
the mental-health system and strongly recommends that parents spend time
intervening early to get their kids the help they need.
She says her family may not recover financially from the
years she’s spent unable to work full time, “but it is what it is. Would it
help if we could get immediate access to services? 100 per cent.”
Brandie Weikle writes about parenting issues and is the host
of The New Family Podcast and editor of thenewfamily.com. Follow her on
Twitter: @bweikle
Science fair at Kitchener school teaches students that
failing can lead to success.
Children cannot count on a low skill job when they grow
up. They need skills, say educators, and besides, science is a lot more fun.
NEWS 06:30 PM by Jeff
Outhit Waterloo Region Record
Alyssa Strasbourg, 6, second from right, and Stefania
Cveckovska, 9, far right, make slime at the Mad Science Canada table during the
science fair at Crestview Public School on Wednesday. - Peter Lee , Waterloo
Region Record
Grayson Evans, 5, a senior kindergarten pupil at Crestview
Public School, looks at a moving installation of coloured spheres representing
planets. - Peter Lee , Waterloo Region Record
Grayson Evans, 5, a senior kindergarten student at Crestview
Public School, marvels at a moving installation of coloured spheres
representing planets. - Peter Lee , Waterloo Region Record
Nasirah Oduyebo, 7, a grade 2 student at Crestview Public
School, displays green slime at her science fair display. - Peter Lee ,
Waterloo Region Record
KITCHENER — Ariana Dukic explains climate change,
experiments with water temperature, and presents her findings with poise beyond
her eight years.
"What I like about science is I learn something every
time," she said.
"I actually have this science journal where I write all
the cool stuff. Then I just remember that and then tell my mom and then she
gets surprised by it. It keeps on going."
Ariana is part of the science fair at Crestview Public School in Kitchener.
Science fairs are not new but Ariana's mother Dina sees more at stake today.
She knows the economy is changing. She sees education as the
way to jobs and prosperity.
"People are saying 'Factories are closing but we're
going to have something more important than the factories.' And we need to make
sure that our kids are educated and prepared for those jobs," Dina Dukic
said.
This makes the Crestview science fair a small part of a
bigger challenge: can schools and families transform this region into an
education champion?
It's no sure thing. Crestview students have seen their
achievement fall over a decade across reading, writing and math.
The same thing has happened at 31 other elementary schools
where standardized test results show poorer results between 2008 and 2018.
Crestview has a plan to do better and it is seeing results.
Student achievement has improved over two years.
The science fair helps this along by bringing the community
together, encouraging parents to take more interest in the education of their
children, and promoting math and science skills.
Proud families stream into the school gymnasium to see more
than 200 students display more than 100 science projects.
Mitchell Dupuis, 8, explains the chemistry he learned while
making lemonade. This taught him that in science, failing is as important as
succeeding.
"You try your best and if it fails, you try
again," he said.
Cadence Krenjec, 10, embraced the same scientific method
while extracting genetic material from an onion.
She likes science because "you can never really mess
up. Because if it doesn't work, then what you can do is explain why it didn't
work, and what you can do differently next time."
"I didn't really expect that it would be this
fun," said Olivia Brodrecht, 10. She conducted an experiment about
molecules. It amazed her to see colours explode in a dish.
Dario Hamidovic, 10, built an impressive spreadsheet on the
career of Swedish soccer star Zlatan Ibrahimovic,
who plays in Los Angeles. It shows his goals, appearances and teams.
"I love using numbers," Dario said. "They can
help you out with any problem you have."
Teacher Sherrie Cochrane launched the Crestview science fair
five years ago, building on her science background.
Like parents, she's thinking about the needs of a knowledge
economy.
"What are we going to do in 20 years? These kids need
science, tech, engineering, math," she said. "We bring a little art
into it as well."
jouthit@therecord.com
Twitter: @OuthitRecord
Twitter: @OuthitRecord
by Jeff
Outhit
Jeff Outhit is a Record reporter, specializing in education,
government, and data analysis.
Some 'snitch-line'
tips on teaching about same-sex marriage are classified as professional
misconduct
Ontario places some cases in same category as sexual
advances toward students
Nicole Brockbank · CBC News · Posted:
Mar 07, 2019 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: an hour ago
The flagged teacher complaints CBC News reviewed stem from
submissions to the tip line the Ontario government created when it released an
interim health and physical education curriculum for elementary schools in
August 2018. (Shutterstock/Syda Productions)
14 comments
The Ontario government has flagged some parent complaints
about educators teaching same-sex marriage, sexting and masturbation as
"allegations of professional misconduct."
It placed those complaints in the same category as
complaints about teachers using racial slurs and making sexual advances
toward students, according to records CBC News obtained through a freedom of
information request.
The 27 flagged teacher complaints CBC News reviewed stem
from submissions to the tip line — dubbed a snitch line by critics — the
Progressive Conservative government created when it released an interim health
and physical education curriculum for elementary schools last August.
- Court
dismisses charter challenge against Ontario sex-ed curriculum
- Modern
sex-ed curriculum has huge support among parents and students
The interim curriculum is based on a version from 1998
that replaced the sex-ed curriculum brought in by the previous
Liberal government in 2015.
Just under half of the flagged complaints appear to be
connected to the controversy surrounding the sex-ed curriculum, with six of
them condemning teachers who allegedly said they would teach or were teaching
aspects of the 2015 curriculum, like LGBT issues, sexting and masturbation.
All but two of those complaints were submitted in the first
week the tip line was introduced. By the end of September the ministry had
received roughly 25,000 submissions — although most of those involved
curriculum concerns and not allegations against specific teachers.
Please investigate. If my child is taught about
same-sex marriage I will sue.- Parent's complaint
In one of the flagged teacher complaints a parent says that
a Durham District School Board (DDSB) teacher told the parent she plans to
teach children about same-sex marriage.
"I do not want my child learning about this vile act,
and Mr. Ford has made it clear that she should be fired (and go to hell) for
teaching this," reads the complaint. "Please investigate. If my child
is taught about same-sex marriage I will sue."
Another flagged complaint concerning a different elementary
school in the DDSB takes issue with a teacher saying he'll teach his students
"about cyberbullying and how they shouldn't send 'sexts.'"
"This is disgusting, and he needs to be fired,"
writes the complainant. "I elected a great man to stop this bulls--t. Why
should my child learn what 'sexting' is? It's perverted. The best prevention is
to NOT teach them."
The DDSB had the second most flagged complaints, with three
of the 27.
It was only topped by the Toronto District School Board,
which is the largest school board in Canada, whose teachers were the subject of
eight of the 27 complaints.
CBC News reached out to the Ministry of Education to find
out what its criteria were for flagging a complaint about a teacher, and
provided a copy of the complaints obtained through an FOI request.
In an email, a spokesperson explained that "flagged
submissions were those which included allegations of professional misconduct by
a member of the teaching profession."
Some complaints 'absolutely not' misconduct
But a University of Toronto education professor and former
principal says the flagged complaints about same-sex marriage and sexting are
"absolutely not" examples of misconduct.
Instead, Mary Reid told CBC News that the "bottom line
is [teachers are] responsible to deliver a program in which their students are
safe."
Education professor Mary Reid says the complaints the
Ministry of Education flagged about same-sex marriage and sexting are
'absolutely not' examples of misconduct. (Christopher Katsarov/Canadian
Press)
"There are LGBT kids perhaps in that classroom, in that
school, within that community," said Reid. "They're not going to feel
included. Teachers are responsible for their well-being."
After reading some of the complaints CBC News obtained, one
LGBT Toronto parent says the records just reinforce the fears that led her
to launch
a lawsuit against the provincial government with the Canadian Civil Liberties
Association to stop the changes to the sex-ed curriculum.
Last week, a divisional court dismissed
Becky McFarlane's case, arguing it's the role of elected officials, not the
courts, to make legislation and policy.
But the decision from the three-judge panel noted that
"nothing in the [interim] curriculum prohibits a teacher from
teaching any of the topics in question, which include: consent, use of proper
names to describe body parts, gender identity and sexual orientation, online
behaviour and cyberbullying, sexually transmitted diseases and
infections."
That's one of the defences government lawyers had used in
response to the lawsuit. But now the flagged complaints have McFarlane
questioning whether teachers are really free to teach those topics.
LGBT parent Becky McFarlane is worried the tip line is being
used to 'promote hatred.' (Chris Glover/CBC)
The government says "you can totally talk about
LGBTQ2S, you could totally talk about consent, there's no problem
whatsoever," McFarlane told CBC News. "And yet what we now are
learning is that the Ministry of Education presumably doesn't think so."
Flagged complaints include racial slurs
For some of the other flagged complaints the allegation of
professional misconduct seems more clear. A few refer to teachers using racial
slurs in front of and toward students, others allege sexual impropriety
— including an alleged video of a teacher having sex with a student.
"You can't compare somebody having sexual relationships
with a student … with a teacher who's teaching about LGBT issues,"
said Reid, adding that as soon as there are "allegations of sexual
misconduct we know there has to be an investigation immediately."
Regardless of the nature of the complaint, or whether it
should be considered an allegation of professional misconduct, the Ministry of
Education says it "does not have authority over matters relating to the
conduct of individual teachers."
Tip line a 'waste of taxpayers' time'
That power rests with the Ontario College of Teachers. So
the province redirected 13 of the 27 complainants — those who provided
contact information — to the regulatory body's website for more
information about its complaint process.
For Reid, that process illustrates why the tip line is
"a waste of taxpayers' time."
"Why doesn't the parent just go directly to the system
that's already in place and has been working already for many years?" she
said to CBC News.
The College of Teachers declined a request for an interview.
In an email it said, "the college does not comment on complaints from any
particular source" but does provide statistics in its annual reports on
the nature and origin of complaints. Staff are still putting together the 2018
numbers.
Despite the fact the province doesn't have the power to
investigate the complaints it flagged, McFarlane still worries about some of
them getting passed to the college, since investigators there are busy looking
into "legitimate issues that keep children safe."
"I don't want those really useful mechanisms to be used
to actually serve a completely different motivation, which is to promote hatred
towards any other group of people," she said.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Nicole Brockbank
Reporter, CBC Toronto
AGAR: Time to cut
bureaucracy in education system
Jerry Agar
Published: March 4, 2019
Updated: March 4, 2019 5:23 PM EST
Photo illustration of an elementary school classroom. Postmedia
files
The Ford government sent a memo to school boards last week
telling them not to fill vacancies until getting budget news.
The NDP freaked out.
“Parents shouldn’t have to worry that their children won’t
get the quality education they deserve as the Conservatives take their cutting
agenda out on our children,” NDP education critic Marit Stiles said.
I responded by bothering to use some facts which had been
gathered in a recent column by the Toronto Sun’s Brian Lilley.
Over the weekend, I tweeted: “Ontario 2004-2018 20% more
teachers. Double the education spending. 100,000 fewer students. Less than 50%
of students up to grade level in math. @fordnation wants a freeze on hiring. He
needs an increase in firing.”
No doubt some of the extra expense and additional teachers
are due to the addition of all-day kindergarten, but we are spending more and
getting less. And we still have fewer children.
Many people on Twitter who attacked my position blamed the
curriculum, and said it isn’t the teacher’s fault. I don’t recall teachers
spending 10% of the energy that they spent freaking out over the sex-ed
curriculum on the math crisis we have in Ontario.
Where is the union demanding a change in curriculum to the
benefit of the teachers and the children?
Premier Doug Ford speaks to the Economic Club of Canada,
in Toronto, Ont. on Monday January 21, 2019. (Stan Behal/Toronto Sun/Postmedia
Network)
Some respond to that by saying that isn’t the union’s job,
which would be fair enough if the union hadn’t stepped outside their purview
and sued the government over the sex-ed curriculum. A court ruled they had no
legitimate argument that kids were being harmed or that teachers were muzzled.
But kids are harmed with low math scores. Teachers and their union seem to care more about sick days and sex ed.
But kids are harmed with low math scores. Teachers and their union seem to care more about sick days and sex ed.
The NDP never lets pass an opportunity to spend more of your
money. They don’t seem to have a clue about budgeting, efficiency and common
sense.
The previous 15 years of Liberal government left us
hemorrhaging money in Ontario. Every adult in this province, on average, pays a
$1,000 a year just to keep up to the interest on the debt. We get no services
for that $1,000 taken out of your pocket every year. We have to pay more for
actual services.
On my NEWSTALK1010 radio show Monday
morning, I commented: “To be blunt, only an idiot is against deep cuts to
Ontario’s spending, and I see no reason to believe that education bureaucracy
shouldn’t be on the chopping block.”
If it bothers you because it seems impolite for me to throw
the word ”idiot” around, here is a question: Do you think Ontario’s problem is
that we don’t have enough debt?
- Cutting
spending will be tough for Ford government: FAO report
- LILLEY:
Thank God, the NDP didn’t win the Ontario election
- BLIZZARD:
Doug Ford aims to make full-day kindergarten more affordable
Do you think Ontario’s government has been efficient with
our money over the past 15 years? Do you think paying more and more for
education while failing our children has been a success?
If you answered “yes” to all three of those questions, what
proud term of self-aggrandizement would you apply to yourself?
And more importantly, do you have a solution to the math
problem that adds up?
We are far past being polite about this.
The NDP would take the fiscal house of cards the Liberals
left us and stack it higher, until it inevitably collapses and drives us into
bankruptcy.
The PCs have no choice. Cuts are mandatory.
Ontario school
principals urge Ford government to delay autism program changes
CAROLINE
ALPHONSO EDUCATION REPORTER
PUBLISHED 3 HOURS AGO UPDATED MARCH 4, 2019
School principals in Ontario are asking the provincial
government to delay a change to its autism program, worried that the shift will
bring children with complex needs into classrooms full-time without proper
supports.
In a letter sent to Education Minister Lisa Thompson, the
heads of three principals’ organizations – the Ontario Principals’ Council
(OPC), the Catholic Principals’ Council of Ontario (CPCO) and Association des
directions et des directions adjointes des écoles franco-ontariennes (ADFO) –
said their members have been fielding calls and e-mails from anxious parents
about how their children will be supported.
A change to the program that comes into effect on April 1
will mean that families who currently receive full funding for intensive
therapy in private or community-based settings will receive only a fraction of
that financial support, and their children will have less access to services.
The Progressive Conservative government will allocate funds based on age and
household income, and said the change would spread the resources among all
families and clear the waiting list of 23,000.
Many of the children receiving intensive therapy under the
current system attend school two days a week, for example, or half-days. The
organizations say the cuts will force parents to put their children in school
more frequently, or even full-time.
Information has been limited, the organizations wrote in
their letter on Friday, and “the education community needs direction on these
critical issues before the changes take effect so that we can ensure we have
the necessary resources to provide a safe, appropriate, meaningful, engaging
and well-supervised learning environment in every school.”
They added: "If the necessary resources are not or will
not be available by April 1, then we urge the government to delay the
implementation of this decision until it can ensure that schools will be able
to meet their legislative responsibilities for all students."
Jennifer Yust, president of CPCO, said in an interview on
Monday that the change to the autism program, announced on Feb. 6, “caught all
of us a little bit off guard.”
“We have three months left in the school year, and we don’t
have personnel in place for [the students who will attend full-time],” she
said. “We’re asking for more information and how we look at making this
transition successful for these students.”
Larry O’Malley, president of the OPC, said one of his
members told him a student who attends school one half-day a week will
transition to five days a week in April, and it is not known if there will be
the government funds for staffing supports.
“They [the principals] aren’t sure what it’s going to look
like,” Mr. O’Malley said. “Are there going to be additional resources to support
these students who are returning on a full-time basis?”
Ms. Thompson told reporters at Queen’s Park on Monday that
her office is working alongside the Ministry of Children, Community and Social
Services, and will share more details shortly.
“As we move forward, the parents of children with autism and
our school boards and our principals will be well advised in terms of the steps
we’re taking,” she said.
Doug Ford’s government has faced criticism from many parents
and autism advocates over the autism program. Several school districts, too,
are wondering how they will manage and are writing to Ms. Thompson to express
their worries about whether they will have enough staff to manage these
students with high needs.
At the same time as the concerns are being raised, the
province’s deputy minister of education sent a memo to school districts late on
Thursday asking them to exercise caution about hiring teachers for the fall
ahead of expected changes to primary class sizes.
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath called the government
irresponsible for not letting school boards and parents know how the students
will be supported.
“All of these things destabilize the education system.
That’s not fair to children, that’s not fair to their parents, and that’s not
fair to educators and other educational workers in the system,” she told
reporters.
With a report from Laura Stone.
FOLLOW CAROLINE ALPHONSO ON TWITTER @CALPHONSO
Why anti-vaxxers
aren’t just killing their own kids — they're putting others in danger, too
Every year, children die because someone they never met
chose not to get vaccinated
TRISTIN HOPPER Updated:
February 27, 2019
A February 9 photo of anti-vaccination protesters at the
State Capitol in Olympia, Washington. Amid a measles outbreak, state
legislators are looking to remove parents' ability to exempt their school-age
children from immunization. AP PHOTO/TED S. WARREN, FILE
Vancouver is currently trying to contain a measles outbreak
that has racked up 13 confirmed cases thus far, and may have spread into
Alberta. As with all the other measles outbreaks in the developed world of
late, it has been driven exclusively by falling vaccination rates among the
general populace.
Below, a quick guide to why Canada’s unvaccinated aren’t
endangering just themselves.
Unvaccinated people are definitely causing these outbreaks
A driver who decides to forego a seatbelt endangers
themselves. A driver who decides to drive drunk endangers others. While the
unvaccinated may often think they fit in the former category, they’re squarely
in the latter. By refusing to immunize, an unvaccinated person turns themselves
into a vessel for a preventable infectious disease.
Western Canada is currently in the grip of a measles
outbreak imported to Canada by international travellers. One of them was an
unvaccinated 11-year-old boy who picked up the disease on a vacation to
Vietnam. Had he been vaccinated against measles, he would almost certainly have
returned without incident. But as it is, he became the carrier of what
blossomed into a regional public health crisis.
The more unvaccinated people in a population, meanwhile, the
easier it is for a disease to spread. If a measles-infected person steps onto a
bus carrying eight unvaccinated passengers, those eight now become potential
carriers themselves. This is why refusing vaccinations is different than other
health decisions. A cancer patient who refuses to undergo chemotherapy doesn’t
risk spreading their cancer to others. But an unvaccinated person stepping onto
an airliner could be unwittingly passing a potentially fatal illness to someone
they’ve never met.
A child infected with measles. FILE
Some people can’t be immunized
This is the most important point in all of this: There is a
demographic of innocent people who, despite taking every precaution, can be
sickened or killed if they happen to share a day care, public bus or hospital
ward with an unvaccinated person. Infants can’t be vaccinated for the first few
months of life. Vaccines also don’t work for people with compromised immune
systems, be they chemotherapy patients or those with autoimmune diseases. The
Centres for Disease Control actually curates a lengthy list of those who cannot
be vaccinated for medical reasons, and it includes pregnant women, people with
tuberculosis, people with bleeding disorders and those with severe allergies.
In a society where more than 90 per cent of people are
immunized, all these categories of people are protected because there aren’t
enough carriers of the disease for it to gain a foothold, a phenomenon known as
“herd immunity.” When vaccination rates drop, however, infants and the
immunosuppressed suddenly find themselves surrounded by people who are potential
carriers of preventable infectious diseases.
It’s no accident that some of the United States’ worst
measles outbreaks in recent years have seized Amish or Orthodox Jewish
communities where vaccination rates were particularly low. As Australia’s Centre
for Human Bioethics concluded in a recent paper, “opting out of vaccination can
result in a significant risk of harm and death to others, especially infants
and the immunosuppressed.”
A child reacts during a Philippine Read Cross Measles
Outbreak Vaccination Response in Baseco compound, a slum area in Manila on
February 16, 2019. An ongoing measles outbreak in the country has killed more
than 100 people. NOEL CELIS/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
The unvaccinated are indeed killing innocent people who
tried to protect themselves
Europe currently holds the dubious distinction of being the
world’s centre for vaccine skepticism. In a 2016 survey, up to 41 per cent of
the population of France did not believe that vaccines are safe. As a direct
result of this increasing abandonment of immunization, Europe has recently been
seized by outbreaks of preventable diseases. In just the first six months of
2018, 41,000 Europeans came down with the measles, and 37 died. The disease was
a bigger killer than terrorism for that year, and as always, deaths and severe
complications were disproportionately suffered by infants and the
immunocompromised.
One recent casualty was Ioana Czegledi, a nine-year-old
Romanian girl with a compromised immune system who caught measles during a
routine visit to a pediatric hospital. “I only brought her into the hospital
when it was absolutely necessary,” her mother told NPR.
A particularly insidious belief among anti-vaxxers and the
“vaccine-hesitant” is that diseases like measles aren’t that bad. This has even
prompted the growth of “measles parties,” where parents willingly expose their
unvaccinated children to the disease to “get it over with.” But measles isn’t
the chicken pox: One in five cases require hospitalization and it kills roughly
one in every 350 to 1,200 cases. In Madagascar, a recent outbreak fuelled by
low vaccination rates has killed 800. Worldwide, measles claims roughly 100,000
mostly children people per year, a death toll that is nevertheless down
dramatically from the 2.6 million it used to claim in the pre-vaccination era.
Signs posted at The Vancouver Clinic in Vancouver, Wash.,
warn patients and visitors of a measles outbreak on Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019.
The outbreak has sickened 39 people in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, with 13
other cases suspected.
Without immunization, preventable diseases could absolutely
surge back to 1930s levels
Alberta is famously the world’s largest rat-free
jurisdiction, and it got that way through hard work: Rats routinely try to
enter the province via the Saskatchewan border or by hitchhiking aboard trucks.
However, any time a rat is spotted in Alberta, it prompts a military-grade
response to kill it and any other rats in the surrounding area. It may seem
overzealous, but if Alberta’s rat patrollers slacked for only a few months, the
rodents would be free to gain the foothold they enjoy in every other corner of
the settled world.
Infectious, vaccine-preventable diseases are similar:
Without public vigilance towards immunization, there’s no reason they can’t return
with just as much deadliness as in the pre-vaccination age. It was not too long
ago that a vaccine-preventable disease, diphtheria, was Canada’s leading cause
of childhood death. Any Canadian over 90 is the survivor of an age in which
they could reasonably expect classmates to disappear because a sudden
diphtheria infection had choked them to death. Before the measles vaccine, the
United States used to see it kill 500 people per year and hospitalize 48,000
others. Even polio, which currently exists only in small corners of Africa and
Central Asia, could conceivably explode once again into Canadian schools and
hospital wards if it was allowed to sweep freely through countries filled with
the unvaccinated.
A single-dose vial of the measles-mumps-rubella virus
vaccine. AP PHOTO/DAMIAN DOVARGANES
The damage from a single unvaccinated child can be
overwhelming
In 2015, a single, measles-infected person spent the day at
Disneyland. Nobody knows who they are, where they got the measles or even if
they knew they were carrying the disease when they decided to visit the
Happiest Place on Earth. That single measles carrier ended up causing an
outbreak that sickened 147 people in cases ranging from Canada to Mexico to
seven U.S. states.
In Canada, calls are rising for mandatory vaccination of
children, with 70 per cent saying it should be a requirement to enter the
public school system. Legal professionals in both Canada and the United States
are weighing the legality of suing the unvaccinated for damages. If these actions
all seem a bit heavy-handed, it’s because of the immense damage that
unvaccinated people can do to civil society. Even if nobody is permanently
injured or killed by the current outbreak, it has spawned a minor crisis as
public health officials scramble to arrest the spread of the disease before it
gets out of control. Measles is one of the world’s most infectious diseases,
and any public place visited by a measles carrier is suspect.
After an employee at a Richmond Toys “R” Us became a
confirmed measles case, Vancouver Coastal Health had to quickly warn customers
and employees of the toy store that they or their children could be next.
Earlier this year, B.C. Children’s Hospital had to put out a public alert
warning parents that their already-sick children may have been exposed to
measles because they shared a waiting room with a known measles patient. All of
this could ultimately have been sparked by fewer than four unvaccinated people
who picked up measles in South Asia. And this kind of response isn’t cheap: A
smaller outbreak in Arizona ultimately cost US$800,000 before it was stopped.
Disneyland, where in 2015 147 people contracted measles from
a single park attendee. AP PHOTO/JAE C. HONG, FILE
Vaccine-injured children aren’t a myth, but the risk is
overwhelmingly outweighed by the benefits
Every year, seatbelts are estimated to save 15,000 lives in
the United State alone. In rare circumstances, a seatbelt can also kill you.
Since 1990, an average of 1.5 U.S. children per year are killed by seatbelt
entanglement. Naturally, 1.5 is a much smaller number than 15,000, so public
health professionals continue to widely recommend universal seat belt use.
Similarly, although immunization has singularly sent whole global plagues into
retreat, sometimes a shot goes wrong. This is almost exclusively in the form of
rashes, fever or allergic reaction, although in rare (roughly one in a million)
cases a vaccine can spark a lifelong disability. Canadian public health
professionals keep close tabs on every incident of vaccine injury, and in the
United States there is even a no-fault compensation program for those injured
by vaccines (no such national program exists in Canada, although there have
been calls to implement one).
The measles vaccine is also particularly safe. Of 102
million doses of MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine administered to
Americans between 2006 and 2017, only 120 resulted in payouts from the National
Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. According to one estimate, it is
approximately 6,000 times more dangerous to get measles than to receive the
measles vaccine. This is roughly the difference in risk between going for a jog
or driving in a Grand Prix race. Despite this, the prospect of vaccine injury
often emboldens anti-vaccination communities, sometimes with catastrophic
results. The Philippines was recently subject to revelations that a newly
introduced dengue fever immunization might make the disease worse if patients
hadn’t previously contracted the illness. The scandal caused vaccine trust to
plummet across the country, directly spawning an ongoing measles outbreak that
has already killed 130 people and may possibly be at the root of other
outbreaks along the North American west coast.
• Twitter: | Email:
thopper@nationalpost.com
Teacher shown door
after Christian school discovers she had sex 'outside of a heterosexual
marriage'
Education advocate questions why provinces fund schools that
discriminate against employees
Erica Johnson · CBC News · Posted: Mar
03, 2019 5:00 PM PT | Last Updated: March 4
Stephanie Vande Kraats was told she couldn't continue to
teach at Surrey Christian School because she had violated a school policy
requiring employees to only have sex within a heterosexual
marriage. (Erica Johnson/CBC)
5875 comments
A long-time teacher at Surrey Christian School in B.C.
says she was told her contract would not be renewed after school
administrators discovered she was living with her male partner, violating a
clause in her employment contract that forbids "any sexual activity
outside of a heterosexual marriage."
"When you're enforcing a policy like this you have to
ask a teacher questions like, 'Who do you live with? Where do you live? Are you
sexually active? Are you pregnant? Are you gay?... It was humiliating,"
Stephanie Vande Kraats told Go Public, tearing up as she recalled the meetings
two years ago that led to her resignation.
- Been
wronged? Contact Erica and the Go
Public team
Vande Kraats had worked at the school for almost 14 years as
an English teacher and librarian.
She's angry that her former employer receives half of its
annual funding — $5 million — from the B.C. government when the
school discriminates against employees.
Go Public's Erica Johnson and teacher Stephanie Vande Kraats
review a Surrey Christian School contract that discriminates against employees
based on their marital status and sexual orientation. (Enzo Zanatta/CBC)
Surrey Christian School is among hundreds of religious
schools across the country that receive public funding. Many are allowed
to have discriminatory hiring policies because they have religious exemptions
from human rights laws.
"It's enabling private schools that are using public
money to operate to violate the human rights of their employees," says
Patti Bacchus, who chaired the Vancouver School Board from 2008-14. "I
think that's a big problem."
'It was traumatic for me'
Vande Kraats says she was married when she signed
the Surrey Christian School's employment contract, which included
a community standards policy, banning employees from
having sex outside of a heterosexual marriage.
More than a decade later, after she had divorced and was
living with her common-law partner, school superintendent Dave Loewen called
her to his office and asked questions about her personal life.
He told her she could work six more months until the end of
her contract, but Vande Kraats says she felt she had to resign.
"I didn't want to continue in a place where I already
felt humiliated and judged," she said. "It was traumatic for
me."
She says she also felt pressured to exit quietly, because
she needed a good letter of reference. She is now working at another school in
the Vancouver area.
"I think there are a lot more people who have been hurt
by these policies than just myself, and I know exactly why they're not speaking
up. They need those references as much as I did," Vande Kraats says.
'I don't think it's discriminatory'
Surrey Christian School superintendent Dave Loewen told Go
Public, "it was sad" to lose Vande Kraats as an employee because she
was a strong teacher.
"Having to have a difficult conversation with someone
about personal choices is not my favourite thing to do," he said.
Surrey Christian School superintendent Dave Loewen says his
school is transparent about the lifestyle choices it expects staff to
follow. (Erica Johnson/CBC)
He disagrees that the school's community standards
policy is discriminatory.
"I think the word 'discriminates' is too strong of a
word," said Loewen. "I don't think it's discriminatory because it's
not a requirement for people to work here. It's invitational and we're
transparent about our values."
'Independent schools save taxpayers'
Surrey Christian School is a member of the Federation of Independent School
Associations(FISA), which told Go Public in an email, "Independent schools save taxpayers nearly
$430 million a year in operating costs and many millions more in capital
costs" because parents pay tuition.
FISA executive director Shawn Chisholm said teachers
"have the choice" of moving to another school, an argument that
exasperates Bacchus, who writes on education issues for the Georgia
Straight newspaper.
"To suggest that you can choose to go work somewhere
else ... really is undermining the whole point of having those kind of
protections," she said. "People shouldn't have to face discrimination
in this country based on their marital status or their gender identity."
Controversial community contracts
Surrey Christian School is one of 35 schools that
belong to the Society of Christian Schools in B.C., which provides its members
a template for community standards policies that employees must
follow.
Besides restrictions on sexual activity, there are
recommended bans on things like using coarse language, public drunkenness and
watching porn.
Surrey Christian School is one of 35 B.C. Christian schools
that receive government funding while having policies that forbid sex outside a
heterosexual marriage. (Daniel Beauparlant/CBC)
Human rights codes in provinces across Canada
have similar exemptions that allow religious schools to set
their own policies, if they're based on religious beliefs and their
primary purpose is to promote the interests of a religious group.
The defining legal case dates back to 1984, when the Supreme
Court of Canada ruled in favour of a Catholic school that fired a teacher after
she married a divorced man, saying non-profit religious institutions have the
right to give preference to members of the group their organizations serve.
Court challenges
Challenges to those policies are few in number, and Go
Public could not find any cases where employees had been successful in
court.
In December, a former teacher and principal at a Catholic
school took her case to the Alberta Human Rights Commission, alleging that she
was pushed to quit because of her sexual orientation. That case is
ongoing.
As a result of media reports, the Alberta
government, which provided almost $1.7 billion in funding to Catholic
schools last year, is now reviewing the employment contracts from all 16 Catholic school
boards in the province.
A transgender man who was fired from a
Catholic school in Alberta in 2008 lost his legal fight in 2017.
A Vancouver teacher decided not to pursue a legal case
after she says she was pushed out of a Catholic school in 2010 when
administrators discovered she was a lesbian after she asked for parental leave
because her partner was having a baby.
Last June, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that
B.C.'s Trinity Western University, an evangelical Christian
school, could not get accreditation for a planned new law school because it has
a policy demanding that students abstain from sex outside of
heterosexual marriage — a code of conduct the court ruled to be
discriminatory towards LGBT students.
"Interesting that staff weren't addressed in that
ruling," says Vande Kraats, who told Go Public the Trinity Western
decision prompted her to speak out about what had happened to her.
"I do wonder if the climate is changing now," she
says.
When Vande Kraats asked the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal about
her situation, she says she was dissuaded from filing a case.
"They were very sympathetic," she says, but told
her that religious schools have the legal right to have discriminatory
employment clauses.
B.C. religious schools get $300M a year
Surrey Christian School receives 50 per cent of the
per-pupil funding given to public schools within its district.
In 2017-18, the school received $5 million in public
funds — a portion of almost $300 million the provincial government
allocated to faith-based schools.
Public education advocate Patti Bacchus says independent
religious schools that want to have 'discriminatory' hiring practices should
not receive government funding. (Dillon Hodgin/CBC)
Bacchus argues that people who want alternatives to the
public education system can make that choice, but shouldn't have access to
government funding.
"It's problematic to me that our provincial government
in B.C. is providing funding to private schools that are including this kind of
discriminatory language in employee contracts and discriminating against
employees," she says.
Vande Kraats also wants the B.C. government to cut
funding or demand religious schools change their employment policies.
B.C. government declines to comment
Go Public requested an interview with B.C. Premier John
Horgan, but a spokesperson referred our request to the Ministry of Education.
A ministry spokesperson declined the interview request, and
also refused to explain why the province provides funding to faith-based
schools with discriminatory policies.
Communications manager Sean Leslie sent a statement reiterating that B.C.'s Human Rights Code
provides certain exemptions that allow schools to have policies like the one
that led to Vande Kraats' termination.
Time for a change?
Raji Mangat, a human rights lawyer with West Coast Women's Legal Education
and Action Fund, says it may be time for the courts to re-examine the
battle between religious rights and individual human rights.
"Society and our expectations around human rights and
people's dignity change," Mangat says. "For instance, same
sex marriage is now recognized.
Human rights lawyer Raji Mangat says it may be time for the
courts and society to re-examine exemptions in the law that allow religious
rights to trump an individual's human rights. (Dillon Hodgin/CBC)
"There are so many situations in which people are
either forced to leave or told their [employment] contract isn't going to be
renewed for reasons I think a lot of us, today, would find very
troubling."
'This is a dark secret'
Vande Kraats hopes that speaking out will encourage
provincial governments across the country to take a hard look at the funding
provided to schools with discriminatory employment contracts.
"This is a dark secret for these religious independent
schools," she says.
"What I've learned is that these policies are actually
enforced. And they're enforced against people that have been long-time
teachers who are respected. And it's very hurtful. I hope it
changes."
Submit your story ideas
Go Public is an investigative news segment on CBC-TV,
radio and the web.
We tell your stories and hold the powers that be
accountable.
We want to hear from people across the country with stories
you want to make public.
Submit your story ideas at Go Public.
Follow @CBCGoPublic on
Twitter.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Erica Johnson
Investigative reporter
Don't try to reason
with vaccine-skeptic parents. Scare them: Robyn Urback
Anti-vaxxers fight information with anecdote and,
unfortunately, it works. So let's hijack their method
Robyn Urback · CBC News · Posted: Mar
04, 2019 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: March 4
Vaccine-preventable illnesses can result in serious medical
complications. We need to show — not just tell — the skeptics
that. (Shutterstock)
939 comments
A baby in the midst of a whooping cough (pertussis) fit will
appear to cry without making a sound. Her mouth will be open as she tries to
cough to clear the mucus from her narrowed airway, but if she's really
struggling, nothing will happen. Her lips and tongue might turn blue. She could
seize. When the fit is finally over, she'll vomit.
It's absolutely terrifying to watch (and no doubt, to
experience), and precisely the type of picture public health
organizations need to paint to counter anti-vaccination propaganda. No
more stats about the infrequency of adverse reactions, or sterile "myth
vs. fact" pages on government vaccine information websites. Facts don't
move people the way that an appeal to emotion — fear, specifically — does.
Anti-vaxxers know that. Their dispatches are compelling:
Vaccine Choice Canada, a registered not-for-profit,
posts devastating, detailed, first-person stories on its website by parents who
report taking their perfectly healthy children in for their scheduled vaccines
and leaving with sick, disabled or otherwise "vaccine-injured"
children.
There are, of course, the requisite stories about children
exhibiting autistic behaviours after vaccination — anecdotes that are easily
dismissed by people who already know that there is no
link between the MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccine and autism.
But some of the other stories are harder to shrug off. They
include tales of babies experiencing seizures, anaphylaxis and even paralysis
after vaccinations. According to the parents' own accounts posted on Vaccine
Choice's website, emergency room physicians dismissed their concerns, telling
them that they were simply overreacting.
These are the critically dangerous stories from a public
health perspective, in that they can't be flat-out rejected as false. That
makes them potentially persuasive even to parents who know better. We know the
chance of a serious adverse reaction as described above is exceedingly rare —
about three in a million, according to the most recent data out
of Ontario — but statistics don't stick in the mind the same way a single
story of a mother's anguish does. And anti-vaccination groups tell those stories
perfectly.
Measles outbreaks
Right now, British Columbia is currently grappling with
a measles outbreak,
and so too is Washington state, Texas (where a lawmaker erroneously suggested that
antibiotics could clear up the outbreak) and a handful of other regions mostly
along the Pacific Northwest. Not surprisingly, the World Health Organization
(WHO) has identified "vaccine hesitancy" as one of the top
10 threats to global health in 2019.
Vaccine hesitancy, however, is an umbrella term that
really describes two distinct groups. There are the strident
anti-vaxxers whose opposition to vaccination is entrenched and
full-throttled — the organizers and proselytizers, who made up less than three
per cent of parents surveyed, according to one study. And then there are those
who can more accurately be described as vaccine-hesitant — those who
are worried about adverse reactions, or autism, or the pace of the vaccine
schedule, or about putting "artificial" medicines in their children.
The former group might be impossible to influence, but the
latter group can still be reached, though bombarding them with stats about
safety and sterile warnings about vaccine-preventable illnesses obviously isn't
working.
So scare them. Show them what a child hospitalized with
measles-induced encephalitis looks like. Tell stories like that of Jamie
Schanbaum, whose legs and fingers were amputated after she contracted
meningitis as a Texas University student. Let them see what it's like for a
baby with whooping cough try to struggle to breathe.
Then let the anti-vaxxers try to counter with stats: But
encephalitis from measles is rare! (True) Vaccines don't
prevent against all kinds of meningitis! (True) You can still
get whooping cough even if you've been vaccinated! (True) But alas,
information about the relative infrequency of complications doesn't stick in
the mind the way the image of a baby's blue lips and tongue does.
- 'It's
a war around the truth': Health experts, Facebook and YouTube play
catch-up with anti-vaxxers
- Person
infected with measles came to N.W.T. on international flight, says Health
Department
- Low
vaccination rates, global outbreaks fuel U.S. measles spread
The better way
Some might be uncomfortable with pro-vaccination efforts
using the same appeal-to-emotion, anecdotal tactics as do anti-vaxxers. But
offending our collective polite sensibilities matters less than herd immunity
and the suffering of children who have little to no say in their own health
care.
Some regions have adopted or are considering adopting
policies that essentially make life more difficult for anti-vaxxers; for
example, by preventing them from sending their children to public schools
unless they have been vaccinated or have a legitimate medical exemption.
But these measures just tend to galvanize the most militant
anti-vaxxers, many of whom are convinced that there is a government and
pharmaceutical conspiracy to vaccinate children. (In my day, the goal of
government conspiracies were a lot more nefarious than trying to keep kids
alive, but I digress.) It also does little to actually help the children
of vaccine-hesitant or anti-vaxx parents, other than entrench their parents'
beliefs. These sorts of prohibitions also do little to mitigate the risk of
measles spreading at the grocery store or community centre or anywhere
else these banned-from-public-school kids can still frequent.
The better way is to reach vaccine-hesitant parents before,
or more effectively than, the anti-vaxxers do. Anti-vaxxers know how to turn
suffering into propaganda: to use anecdote to stoke fear. Fighting fear with
information doesn't work as well, unfortunately, as fighting fear with fear.
Anti-vaxxers have graciously already given us the formula. All we have to do is
follow it.
This column is part of CBC's Opinion
section. For more information about this section, please
read our FAQ.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Robyn Urback
Columnist
OCDSB raises concerns
over autism changes
More students with autism to be integrated into classrooms
after April 1
CBC News · Posted: Mar 02, 2019 4:00 AM ET | Last
Updated: 6 hours ago
OCDSB chair Lynn Scott says there's been a lack of
communication as the board prepares for changes to the provincial autism
program. (CBC)
3 comments
Imminent changes to the way autism treatment is funded in
Ontario could mean many more students with autism will be attending school full
time.
- Parents
'outraged' over autism funding changes, says opposition critic
- Raising
a child with autism in Ontario
That's causing concern among school boards worried about
meeting the students' needs, including the Ottawa-Carleton District School
Board (OCDSB).
The bottom line is that many children with autism do not
manage transitions and change particularly well.- Lynn Scott, OCDSB chair
"We are certainly encouraging parents to contact their
local schools to give us some idea of the potential for changes that we will be
working with them on," OCDSB chair Lynn Scott said on CBC's Ottawa
Morning.
According to Scott, the most pressing issue is finding
qualified staff to assist children with autism in the classroom by April 1,
when the changes come into effect.
"Every school board is competing to some extent to get
qualified people," she said.
Scott said the OCDSB currently has the staff, but could run
into problems when it comes time to replace people who retire or take sick
leave.
Poor communication
Later, on Ontario Today, Scott said a lack
of communication between the various ministries involved in the transition and
the school boards is a concern.
"Anything that can be done to coordinate better and
actually build in proper planning time would be a good thing," she said.
The impending changes have caused worry among many
caregivers, too, Scott said.
"Parents are right to be concerned. We will certainly
be working very hard to make the transitions as easy as we can and as smooth as
we can, but the bottom line is that many children with autism do not manage
transitions and change particularly well." Scott said.
Scott is concerned that without proper programs in
place for students with autism, advancements made in intensive
therapy could be lost.
At its next meeting, the OCDSB will discuss
sending letters to the ministers of social services and education to raise
concerns about the autism program overhaul.
CBC's Ottawa Morning and CBC's Ontario Today
For this science
whiz-kid, it's all elementary
Ben Nichols had the entire periodic table down by the tender
age of 4
CBC News · Posted: Mar 02, 2019 4:00 AM ET | Last
Updated: 6 hours ago
Ben Nichols, 7, visits chemistry professor Jeff Manthorpe at
Carleton University. Ben's dad, Scott, called the tour of Ottawa's coolest labs
'the best day of his life, so far.' (Scott Nichols)
When Ben Nichols first laid eyes on the periodic table — it
was on a poster at Queens University — he decided he needed to memorize
the entire thing. He did, in just two weeks. He was four.
Now seven, Ben has been learning about the elements ever
since. He wanted to share his knowledge with CBC's All In A
Day as part of the Element of Surprise series, so his dad, Scott,
sent these videos last week.
Earlier this week, father and son made the trip from
Kingston up to Ottawa, where Ben took host Alan Neal and the All
In A Day listeners to school.
All in a Day
Element Of Surprise: Ben The Element Lad
LISTEN
00:00 12:39
Ben Nichol is a 7-year old fan of the Element of Surprise
series we've been doing here on All In A Day. 12:39
Ben wants to be a scientist when he grows up, and All
In A Day had a special surprise for him.
The show brought in two special guests: chemistry professor
Jeff Manthorpe, the brains behind Carleton University's Chemistry
Magic shows, and Alain St-Amant, vice-dean of the Faculty of Science at
the University of Ottawa.
An afternoon of exploration
Ben got to spend the rest of his afternoon on a whirlwind
tour of both university campuses.
Scott tagged along, and kept everyone up to date on Ben's
adventure via Twitter.
Ben started by testing pH levels in a lab at the University
of Ottawa with St-Amant.
Then it was off to Carleton, where Ben continued to explore
the world of chemistry with Manthorpe
Then it was time for some impressive chemical reactions.
Ben continued to explore how his deep knowledge of the
elements applied to the real world.
Finally, Ben thanked everyone for making possible what Scott
called "the best day of his life, so far."
Tune in as CBC's All In A Day continues
exploring the wonders of the periodic table with Element of Surprise.
(Hi, Belgium, Bonjour, Belgium.)
Ontario asks school
districts to ‘exercise prudence’ around hiring decisions ahead of expected
change to class-size guidance
PUBLISHED 6 HOURS AGO UPDATED FEBRUARY 28, 2019
The Ontario government is asking school districts to
exercise caution around hiring teachers for the fall, ahead of an expected
change to primary-class sizes.
In a memo sent to school districts on Thursday evening, a
copy of which was obtained by The Globe and Mail, deputy education minister
Nancy Naylor wrote that the government was reviewing its consultations on class
sizes and teacher hiring practices.
Ontario's Education Minister Lisa Thompson attends Question
Period at the Ontario Legislature in Toronto on Aug. 2, 2018.
CHRIS YOUNG/THE CANADIAN PRESS
“I am writing to you today to recommend that school boards
exercise prudence in making hiring decisions in light of the upcoming Ontario
budget and the recent consultation on class size and hiring practices,” Ms.
Naylor wrote.
She added: “School boards are advised to defer the annual
processes of filling vacancies for retirements and other leaves related to
teachers and other staff until the Minister of Education provides an update to
the sector on or before March 15.”
Premier Doug Ford’s government recently completed education
consultations, which included the possibility of removing caps on class sizes
for kindergarten to primary grades.
Questions in a government document outlining the
consultations asked whether hard caps on class sizes in kindergarten and Grades
1 to 3 should continue, and if not, what an appropriate mechanism to set class
sizes would be.
Many in the education sector fear that removing class-size
caps is the first sign of further cuts to schools as the government tries to
trim a deficit it pegs at $14.5-billion.
Michael Barrett, chair of the Durham District School Board,
said he was “worried about the potential impact" that the government’s
announcement will have on staffing levels and the board’s ability to provide
programs to its students.
Currently, the kindergarten class-size cap is 29 students,
and the average class size across any board can’t be more than 26.
For the primary grades, the cap is 23 students, but at least
90 per cent of classes in any board must have 20 or fewer students.
The research is conflicted over how much class size matters
when it comes to student achievement. Some research shows it is beneficial to
reduce class sizes, especially in the early years, but the affect on academic
achievement is small. Other studies show that the key to quality education is spending
money on developing strong teachers and a high-quality curriculum.
The government also concluded consultations on the full-day
kindergarten program for four- and five-year-olds. It asked for input on the
two-educator model − a teacher and an early-childhood educator − and if there
are other models the ministry could consider.
Full-day kindergarten was introduced by the former Liberal
government in the fall of 2010 and incorporates two years of a play-based
curriculum for junior and senior kindergarten. It costs the government
$1.5-billion a year.
A team of researchers from the Ontario Institute for Studies
in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto found that full-day
kindergarten learners are “significantly ahead” in reading, writing and number
knowledge than their half-day peers at the end of Grade 2. The researchers also
found that children enrolled in the all-day learning program showed significant
gains in self-regulation, which includes the ability to focus, follow
instructions and co-operate with peers.
FOLLOW CAROLINE ALPHONSO ON TWITTER @CALPHONSO
Expanded pre-kindergarten off to slow start at Montreal's
French schools
Two of the three French school boards told the education
minister their schools are so overcrowded they can't open even one new pre-k
class.
Updated: February 27, 2019
The Commission scolaire de Montréal, Quebec’s largest
school board, only has space for four new pre-kindergarten classes starting in
September. TED S. WARREN / AP FILE PHOTO
The Legault government’s much-vaunted plan to increase
pre-kindergarten places in Quebec is off to a slow start in French
schools on the island of Montreal.
Two of the three French school boards told Education
Minister Jean-François Roberge last week that their schools are so overcrowded
they couldn’t open
even one pre-k class next fall.
“We are having trouble accommodating our existing students
and we are getting more and more students each year,” said Gina Guillemette, a
spokesperson for the Commission Scolaire Marguerite Bourgeoys, which covers the
western half of the island.
At present, the board has 23 pre-k classes in nine schools.
“They asked us if can we open more next year and we said no.”
The Commission scolaire de Montréal, Quebec’s largest school
board, only has space for four new classes starting in September.
The English Montreal School Board has been given funding
to open
13 new classes and the Lester B Pearson Board is hoping to open 19 new
classes, the largest increase in the province.
“We are calling our principals to see where there is space
and to see if we can bus the kids there,” said Carol Heffernan, the Pearson
board’s assistant director general.
She said pre-k classes give four-year-olds a head start
before they enter kindergarten.
“There is a bit more of a structured curriculum compared to
a daycare,” Heffernan said. “There’s still going to be a lot of play because
children learn through play at that age.”
A spokesperson for the Commission scolaire de la
Pointe-de-lÎle, which covers the eastern tip of Montreal Island, said a surge
in the number of new students means they have no space to open any new pre-k classes
this fall.
Several factors, including lower student-teacher ratios in
underprivileged areas, an increase in immigrants and asylum seekers, and more
residential development in the east end means the board’s schools are packed.
Last year, the Education Ministry revised its projections
for the 2021-2022 school year, estimating that the board could have 2,000 more
students than previously forecast.
“We have an urgent need for space for students who have to
attend school, so we can’t open any new pre-k classes next fall,” said Valérie
Biron, a board spokesperson.
EMSB chairperson Angela Mancini said space restrictions in
the west end of Montreal mean most of the new classes will be in schools in the
central and eastern part of the board’s territory. “Our educators are doing a
wonderful job welcoming these young children to our system,” she said in a
statement on Wednesday. “It is important that we maintain some control of where
these classes are added in the coming years.”
On Sunday, the operators of the province’s network of public
daycares voiced their opposition to tabled legislation by the Legault government that
would establish universal pre-kindergarten classes across Quebec.
The province’s two largest daycare organizations —
representing operators as well as workers — are also raising concerns that the
government’s proposed investment of up to $700 million a year to set up
pre-kindergarten classes will end up hurting subsidized daycares, known in
French as Centres de la petite enfance.
Three Windsor-Essex students overcome obstacles, earn $5K
scholarships
SHARON HILL, WINDSOR STAR
Updated: March 1, 2019
The Horatio Alger Association of Canada logo. IMAGE
COURTESY OF THE THE HORATIO ALGER ASSOCIATION OF CANADA / WINDSOR
STAR
Three Windsor-Essex teens have earned $5,000 scholarships
each for persevering through adversity while maintaining good grades.
The Horatio Alger Association of Canada is awarding $5,000
scholarships to Karl Zhu from Vincent Massey Secondary School, Heather Toma of
St. Joseph’s Catholic High School and Cylee Hickey from Kingsville District
High School.
The Horatio Alger Association of Canada, a charitable
organization that believes hard work, honesty and determination can overcome
obstacles, is giving a total of $900,000 in scholarships to 170 students across
Canada this year. Ten students will receive $10,000 and 160 students will be
awarded Horatio Alger Canadian Scholarships of $5,000 each.
The scholarships are awarded annually to deserving high
school students in financial need who have overcome significant obstacles while
showing strength of character, strong academics, and a desire to pursue
post-secondary education and contribute to society.
The association gets its name from the popular American
author Horatio Alger, Jr. (1832-1899) who wrote many books with a rags-to-riches
theme. The Canadian association started in 2009 and is an affiliate of the
Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans, Inc.
Since 2012, the Canadian association said it has given out
more than $5.1 million in scholarships.
The association receives applications from across the
country from students who have faced a variety of difficult circumstances from
homelessness to the death of a parent and yet maintained high grades. The
association said the average recipient maintains a 89 per cent average.
Never stop learning, don't eat yellow Jell-O in space —
astronaut Roberta Bondar
SHARON HILL, WINDSOR STAR
Updated: March 1, 2019
Reached for the stars. Dr. Roberta Bondar, the first
Canadian female astronaut, speaks to a packed University of Windsor Alumni
Auditorium on Feb. 28, 2019. DAX MELMER / WINDSOR STAR
Never think you’ve reached your potential and never eat
yellow Jell-O if you get into space, Canada’s first female astronaut Dr.
Roberta Bondar said Thursday.
“People always tell you to reach for the stars. I’ve heard
that once or twice,” she said to a crowd of a few hundred people at the
University of Windsor. “They also say you should try to reach your potential,
and I think that is not the right thing to say because once you reach your
potential, what then?”
Bondar showed a picture of herself at age three with
binoculars and said she looked at the stars and wanted to know what’s out
there. But if that was her only dream, she would have been “dead in the water
at age 48 and not really thinking about accomplishing anything else.”
Bondar, the first Canadian woman and neurologist to fly in
space, spoke on Infinite Possibilities as part of the University of Windsor’s
Science Society Speaker Series.
An iconic photograph of the Earth taken from space is
shown during a speech Thursday by Dr. Roberta Bondar, the first Canadian female
astronaut, at the University of Windsor’s Alumni Auditorium. DAX
MELMER /WINDSOR STAR
Be alert and engaged, read books, keep learning all your
life and take a course in ethics, she advised.
Bondar began her astronaut training in 1984 and flew aboard
the space shuttle Discovery on an eight-day mission in 1992.
It was an extraordinary, life-changing experience, she said.
“When you float in space it’s a very free feeling but you
have to keep track of everything.”
The never-eat-yellow-snow rule on earth turns into
never-eat-yellow-Jell-O in space, she said in a question period following her
talk. “In space, all fluids, even from the bathroom, they float up and form a
ball.”
Bondar, who joked and was relaxed on stage in her running
shoes, stood between two large screens and showed videos, including one where
you could hear the astronauts scrambling to get film for the famous earth-rise
picture in 1968.
She is a photographer and co-founded the Roberta Bondar
Foundation which encourages people to connect with nature through photography.
Delaney Sloan, 12, was part of a Lego Robotics Space Cadets
team from Holy Cross Catholic Elementary School in LaSalle who dressed up in
white space suits and lab coats for Bondar’s presentation. The team had studied
sleep deprivation in space.
“I’m sure that Roberta Bondar is a really good role model
for a lot of girls so I’m really stoked to be able to hear from her,” said
Sloan, who wants to be a meteorologist.
Teachers free to use
own judgment for sex ed, Ontario court rules as it dismisses legal challenge of
curriculum
CAROLINE
ALPHONSO EDUCATION REPORTER
JEFF
GRAY TORONTO CITY HALL REPORTER
PUBLISHED FEBRUARY 28, 2019 UPDATED 6 HOURS AGO
An Ontario court has dismissed a legal challenge of the
government’s interim sex-education curriculum from the province’s elementary
school teachers and a civil liberties group, saying educators are not
restricted in developing lesson plans and can teach in a way that is inclusive
of all students.
The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) and
the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) argued that the provincial
government violated Charter rights by putting in place an outdated curriculum.
But a panel of three divisional court judges ruled Thursday
that there has been no breach of Charter rights and that the Education Act and
the Ontario Human Rights Code "require teachers and school environments to
be inclusive, tolerant and respect diversity.”
The Ontario government directed school boards last August to
scrap a 2015 sex-education curriculum for Grades 1 to 8 developed by the
previous government and containing references to same-sex families and consent.
It replaced it with an older curriculum from 2010, with a section on health and
physical education that includes a 1998 document on sexual health.
“The 2010 curriculum contains no provision preventing
teachers from addressing the topics of consent, use of proper names to describe
body parts, gender identity and sexual orientation, online behaviour and
cyberbullying, sexually transmitted disease or infections, in the elementary
school classroom," the judges wrote in their ruling.
The CCLA said it would be appealing the decision. “Today is
a bad day for equality rights,” said Cara Zwibel, the director of the
organization’s fundamental freedoms program, in a statement.
ETFO president Sam Hammond said in a statement that the
court’s decision was a “victory” for educators because the government made clear
in the hearing that teachers could use their professional judgment in teaching
the curriculum. At the hearing in January, Zachary Green, a lawyer for the
government, said that while teachers are expected to follow an interim
curriculum and assess students based on those grade-level expectations, they
are also not prevented from drawing on resources, including the 2015
curriculum.
“The government’s explicit concession on this point in court
makes this case a victory for ETFO and others. I have no doubt that such a
concession would never have occurred without litigation,” he said.
Education Minister Lisa Thompson told reporters at Queen’s
Park on Thursday that she was still reviewing the court decision.
She said that after holding public consultations, her
government was drafting a new curriculum for the fall that would address a
variety of issues, including cyberbullying, human trafficking and consent. But
she would not commit to including discussions of transgender people or gender
identity – issues that were raised by some social conservatives.
“We heard loud and clear from parents that they wanted to
make sure that their students were receiving a curriculum that was
age-appropriate and absolutely on the mark in terms of today’s realities. And
that’s the curriculum they’re going to get,” she said.
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said it was shameful for the
government to fight the legal challenge instead of focusing on providing a safe
environment for all children in school and ensuring that students learn about
issues such as gender identity and cyberbullying.
“That should be paramount. Nothing has changed with our kids
being at risk in schools with the lack of the updated curriculum,” Ms. Horwath
said. “Maybe the Conservatives still think it is important to stick with their
social-conservative radicals, but that’s not the vast majority of parents in
this province.”
The ETFO had argued that the government restricted teachers’
freedom of expression by creating a chilling effect among educators with
threats of disciplinary action. In a statement in August, Premier Doug Ford
threatened to punish educators who defied his government’s orders to use a
20-year-old sex-education curriculum and launched a platform for parents to
anonymously report concerns about what is being taught in classrooms. “Make no
mistake, if we find somebody failing to do their job, we will act,” Mr. Ford
said at the time.
Meanwhile, the CCLA said the government was discriminating
against same-sex parents and their children and violating their constitutional
right to equality by erasing references in the curriculum to sexual
orientation, gender identity and same-sex relations.
In the interim curriculum, gender identity is mentioned in
the introduction and the glossary, but is not among the grade-by-grade learning
expectations for elementary students. Consent and sexting are no longer
discussed in Grade 7, and the curriculum doesn’t include topics of gender
identity and sexual orientation in Grade 3. The 2015 curriculum addressed all
these topics.
The judges wrote that teachers’ freedom of expression is not
constrained because, as long as learning expectations are met, educators can
address topics that go beyond those set out in the curriculum.
The court said some of the public statements were
“ill-considered,” likely a reference to Mr. Ford’s threats, but it did not
constitute an infringement of rights.
In addressing the CCLA’s argument, the judges wrote that the
omission of certain topics in the curriculum “could be said to negatively
affect certain groups.” But they also wrote that “the provision in the 2010
curriculum requires that, to the extent possible, the implementation of the
2010 curriculum be ‘inclusive and reflect the diversity of the student
population,' " regardless of culture, ethnicity, sex, gender identity and
sexual orientation.
Waterloo Region schools anticipating Ontario may cut
education funding by up to four per cent in September.
Ontario is likely to cut education funding, so school
boards are looking at what that might mean.
News 07:54 PM by Jeff
Outhit Waterloo Region Record
WATERLOO REGION — School boards are planning for bigger
classes, fewer teachers and fewer administrators, anticipating the Progressive
Conservative government may cut education funding by up to four per cent in
September.
"That's at least appropriate to start thinking
about," said treasurer Matthew Gerard, of the Waterloo Region District
School Board. "There will be challenges if there are funding
reductions."
Such a reduction would strip local schools of up to an
estimated $39 million for the next school year.
It would follow 14 years in which Liberal governments hired
more teachers, increasing funding per student by almost twice the rate of
inflation.
The Waterloo Catholic District School Board expects bigger
class sizes will provide most of the spending reduction, by reducing the need
for teachers.
Ontario caps kindergarten classes at 29 students, Grade 1 to
3 classes at 23 students.
The Catholic board hopes to shed teachers not by layoffs but
through retirements, resignations and leaves.
Without specific direction "we have modelled what
changes could look like and the effect," board treasurer Shesh Maharaj
said.
To anticipate a cut of four per cent, the Catholic board
cites a review of
provincial spending by auditors Ernst and Young, discussions with Ministry
of Education staff, and recent provincial
consultations on class size and hirings.
"The ministry has not sent any written direction to
school boards providing clarity on any specific budget expectations for next
year," Maharaj said.
Boards are beginning to prepare budgets that trustees must
approve by June.
The public board said it's too early to know exactly how it
would implement such a cut. Gerard notes that the board had to respond quickly
to a funding crunch caused by declining enrolment a few years ago.
Losing funding per student would be a big turnaround.
Ontario increased education spending per local student by 49
per cent between 2005 and 2019. Total school funding has reached almost $1
billion for local schools, government figures show.
With more funding elementary students have achieved higher
standardized test results, although they are still behind the Ontario average
across reading, writing and math.
With more funding, high school students graduate more often
in a region that needs to narrow the graduation gap and where students earn
fewer diplomas than their Ontario peers.
School boards anticipate funding reductions such as:
• The elimination of a temporary fund for local priorities.
It's worth about $9 million to local schools and is spent on teachers and
training, among other things.
• A further reduction exceeding $1 million in special grants
for initiatives such as technology, literacy, math, hands-on learning and
mental health supports.
• A reduction of up to five per cent in administration
costs.
Ontario's fund for local priorities is worth $235 million
across the province. It was negotiated with teacher unions and it expires Aug.
31 when collective agreements end.
The Ministry of Education says the fund "addresses a
range of local priorities and needs. This may include more special education
staffing to support children in need, 'at-risk' students and adult
education."
"If it is negotiated back in, we can adjust
budgets," Maharaj said. "But without that guarantee, we have to scale
back on spending to match."
The Ministry of Education did not respond to interview
requests Thursday.
jouthit@therecord.com
Twitter: @OuthitRecord
Twitter: @OuthitRecord
by Jeff
Outhit
Jeff Outhit is a Record reporter, specializing in education,
government, and data analysis.
TDSB has a change of
heart after barring 21 kids from downtown school to make room for foreign
students
Pre-schoolers are from outside Orde St. PS catchment area
Michael Smee · CBC News · Posted: Feb
25, 2019 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: 3 hours ago
Anna Gionet, executive director of the Orde Daycare Centre
near University Avenue and College Street, says TDSB officials told daycare
directors that some junior kindergarten spots in the attached public school are
being reserved for the children of overseas medical professionals — an
accusation the board denies. (Farrah Merali/CBC)
52 comments
The Toronto District School Board was planning to
bar 21 preschoolers at a downtown daycare from moving up to a junior
kindergarten class across the hall, saying the spots were needed
for the children of incoming foreign doctors and researchers.
Now, the board appears to have had a change of heart.
"Everyone can breathe a little easier," Orde
Daycare Centre executive director Anna Gionet told CBC Toronto after
getting the news Monday.
"I was just relieved for the parents and the
children, that they don't have to be disrupted, and for the staff at the
daycare."
The young students at the heart of this story are scheduled
to graduate to a junior kindergarten class at Orde Street Junior
Public School (OSJPS) in September. But last Thursday, their parents were
told in a letter from the school's principal that there wouldn't be room for
them, after all.
"It's very, very frustrating," said Jeanne Martin,
a mother of two children — one of whom goes to the daycare and the other
the junior kindergarten.
"These are real kids, and their siblings."
Jeanne Martin, who has one daughter at Orde Street Junior
Public School and another at the Orde Daycare Centre, says she's upset that the
TDSB ruled her youngest won't be allowed to attend the pubic school along with
her big sister. (Sue Reid/CBC)
Directors of the Order Daycare Centre said they
met with TDSB officials Monday morning and were told later in
the day that the board had found room for all the children expected to register
at the school for the 2019-2020 school year.
The TDSB confirmed the news in a statement later
Monday, after CBC Toronto published its story.
"To provide more time for parents to plan alternatives,
students who currently attend the child care centre and live outside the
attendance boundary will be able to attend Junior Kindergarten at the school in
September 2019," the statement said. "Admission restrictions
will instead take effect in September 2020."
The board had denied the children
were being displaced by the families of foreign medical research fellows.
The board said in a statement to CBC Toronto the affected students are from
outside the Orde school's catchment area and are being redirected simply
because the school is full.
But that doesn't line up with what three of the daycare's directors
say they were told by board planners at a Feb. 15 meeting.
Gionet, who was at the meeting, said the board staff told
them that doctors and academics from overseas were expected to arrive in the
school district, near University Avenue and College Street, by September.
Jeanne Martin and Mabel, 4, leave Orde Street Junior Public
School, where Mabel is in junior kindergarten. (Sue Reid/CBC)
And they'd most likely choose to live within the Orde
school's catchment area, since it's close to downtown hospitals and research
centres.
"They indicated to us at this meeting that they
expected an influx of fellows — that's what they're called — and they
would take up spaces," Gionet said.
"It's absolutely unfair."
She said the board's representatives couldn't say how many
fellows were expected, whether they had children or how many school places
might be needed.
"There's no guarantee that they have children that are
school-aged that will need to use Orde Public School," she added.
The school's proximity to hospitals and research centres on
University Avenue has made Orde Street Junior Pubic School especially popular
with parents who work in the medical field, both locals and those visiting from
abroad, educators in the area say. (Mike Smee/CBC)
As recently as early February, parents say they'd been
told their children could graduate to the school's junior kindergarten classes
in fall 2019, even though they live outside the school district's boundaries.
Last week's news was a bitter disappointment for some, who'd
been looking forward to seeing their kids move into regular classes at the
school, which in some cases is also attended by their older siblings.
"The caregivers know our children and they know our
family," said Martin, who was one daughter in the Orde daycare and another
at the school. "If I have children at two different schools, that's a
challenge.
The TDSB says increasing local demand for spots at Orde
Street Junior Public School — not an influx of foreign medical fellows — is
behind a recent decision to limit enrolment from a nearby daycare, a decision
that was overturned Monday. (Mike Smee/CBC)
"So we have a lot of decisions to make."
Parents and daycare directors say as recently as Feb. 8
they'd been assured that out-of-district pre-schoolers would be allowed to
enrol in Orde's junior kindergarten program for the fall of 2019.
That all changed, they say, at the Feb. 15 meeting, after
which the school's principal, Michael Walkington, sent a letter to parents
warning that out-of-district children would no longer be streamed into the
school from the daycare.
The playground at Orde Street Junior Pubic School. The TDSB
says the school has more applicants than spaces, but directors of an adjacent
daycare say their kids are being squeezed out by the board's preference for
families of foreign medical professionals. (Mike Smee/CBC)
"No student who resides outside of the school's
boundaries will be able to attend Orde Street Public School," he wrote in
a Feb. 21 letter to parents.
"Please note: this includes siblings of current
students.
"We are sorry for this potential upset for some
families, but our school is running over
capacity and we simply do not have the space for out-of-area students."
capacity and we simply do not have the space for out-of-area students."
Children already enrolled at OSJPS aren't affected by the
decision to exclude out-of-district kids, the board's statement said.
'School building is full'
"In 2017 we made the decision to close Orde Street PS
to Optional Attendance. Optional Attendance is the TDSB's policy that permits
students who live outside a school's attendance boundary to attend the school.
Orde Street PS was closed to optional attendance because the school building is
full due to rising enrolment among students from within the boundary."
Martin, who lives in the Vaughan Road and Oakwood Avenue
neighbourhood, said many families like the Orde daycare and school because
they're close to downtown workplaces, and ease the daily struggle of picking up
and dropping off multiple children each school day.
Martin said parents had asked the board for a year's
grace to come up with other arrangements, but were denied.
The University Health Network, which includes nearby Toronto
General Hospital and the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, said it had no
knowledge of a plan to enrol the children of UHN's incoming medical fellows
within Orde's school district.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Michael Smee
Reporter, CBC Toronto
'We cannot let these
children down': Ottawa unveils Indigenous child welfare overhaul
Bill would hand jurisdiction to First Nations, Métis and
Inuit governments
John Paul Tasker · CBC News · Posted: Feb 28, 2019 1:24 PM
ET | Last Updated: an hour ago
Metis National Council President Clement Chartier hugs Jane
Philpott, president of the Treasury Board, during a press conference on the
introduction of Bill C-92 in Ottawa on Thursday. Indigenous Services Minister
Seamus O'Regan, back right, and Natan Obed, president of Inuit Tapiriit
Kanatami, look on. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)
Indigenous Services Minister Seamus O'Regan unveiled a
sweeping overhaul of the Indigenous child welfare system Thursday, the largest
such change in a generation. It will effectively hand over control of these
services to Indigenous governments in an effort to tackle "crisis" levels
of First Nations, Métis and Inuit children in foster care.
The legislation, Bill C-92, would cede jurisdiction on this
matter from other levels of government to Indigenous peoples so that they can
care for their own children in a culturally appropriate way.
An Indigenous-led child welfare system is a departure from
how the current system works, which leaves most Indigenous kids housed in
provincially governed child welfare systems that critics say are inattentive to
their unique needs.
"This legislation affirms the inherent jurisdiction of
Indigenous families and communities so they are the ones to decide what is best
for their children, to ensure the best interest of the child, cultural
continuity and substantive equality are the principles and priorities in any situation
and send a clear directive that children cannot be separated from their
families regardless of their socioeconomic status," O'Regan said Thursday.
An 'entirely new process'
O'Regan touted the legislation as an "entirely new
process." Treasury Board President Jane Philpott, the former Indigenous
services minister, said the Liberal government has done many positive things
but this change is perhaps the most important. "This will change people's
lives," she said, recounting the stories of many impoverished Indigenous
women who see their babies apprehended shortly after birth.
In recognizing Indigenous communities as the entities best
placed to care for Indigenous children, O'Regan said Ottawa is committed to
keeping families together and reducing the number of Indigenous children in
care.
While just 7.7 per cent of all Canadian children under 14
are Indigenous, they account for 52.2 per cent of all children in foster care.
To draw that number down, O'Regan urged a speedy passage of
the bill through Parliament. "An entire generation of Inuit, Métis and
First Nations children and youth are counting on us to get this right. We
cannot let these children down. We will not let these children down," the
Newfoundland and Labrador minister said.
AFN National Chief Perry Bellegarde, left, looks on as
O'Regan speaks at the press conference. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press)
Assembly of First Nations (AFN) National Chief Perry
Bellegarde praised the bill, saying Ottawa is finally committed to giving the
Indigenous and treaty rights guaranteed in the Constitution some practical
application.
"The tragedy of thousands of First Nations children in
care tells us we need a new approach," Bellegarde said. "The time is
long overdue for First Nations to finally regain responsibility over our
children."
'From apprehension to prevention'
Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett said the
bill shifts the focus from "from apprehension to prevention" by
prioritizing services like prenatal care and support to parents.
Programs for teen parents, rehabilitative family services,
substance abuse treatment, warnings about fetal alcohol syndrome and other
education campaigns are some of the prevention programs used in some
jurisdictions.
Ottawa tables
legislation to protect and promote Indigenous languages, Inuit call it
'colonial'
Ottawa to hand
over child welfare services to Indigenous governments
As MMIWG inquiry
wraps, Bennett defends decision to reject timeline extension
The bill also moves away from a system that takes children
from their families simply because of a lack of housing or related
infrastructure, or state of health of the child's parent or caregiver.
While Bill C-92 is s "high-level" document that
outlines new governing principles, Bennett said, Ottawa has also convened a
number of "trilateral tables" that will see federal, provincial and
Indigenous governments meet to hash out new child welfare agreements and settle
on best practices to put in place on the ground.
Many fear the current system — which regularly seizes
children from their families and communities and places them with foster
parents — replicates the mistakes made by the Indian residential school system
and through the Sixties Scoop, alienating kids from their traditional language,
culture and support networks.
O'Regan affirmed Thursday that Ottawa has already made some
key policy shifts to rebuild the broken system by moving away from a model that
almost exclusively tied funding to the number of kids in care.
Advocates have said a per-child funding equation provides
incentives to agencies to apprehend more children to pad the bottom line,
essentially transforming at-risk children into commodities.
About the Author
John Paul Tasker
Parliamentary Bureau
Court dismisses charter challenge against Ontario sex-ed
curriculum
Challenge argued that changes to curriculum infringed
teachers' rights, put students at risk
Allison Jones · The Canadian Press · Posted: Feb 28, 2019
11:46 AM ET | Last Updated: an hour ago
Parents protested against changes to sex-ed curriculum
outside Queen's Park last summer. (Farrah Merali/CBC)
An Ontario court dismissed a legal challenge Thursday from
elementary teachers and a civil liberties group over the Progressive Conservative
government's repeal of a modernized sex-ed curriculum.
The challenge from the Elementary Teachers' Federation of
Ontario and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association argued that changes made
by the government infringed teachers' freedom of expression and put students at
risk by failing to be inclusive.
The Tories repealed a 2015 curriculum from the previous
Liberal government that included lessons warning about online bullying and
sexting, as well as parts addressing same-sex relationships and gender
identity.
A Divisional Court ruling released Thursday noted that it is
the role of elected officials, not the courts, to make legislation and policy
decisions.
Government lawyers said teachers were allowed to go beyond
what is in the new curriculum, the court noted, and there was no evidence of a
teacher being disciplined for doing that. Schools are currently using an
interim curriculum based on a version from 1998.
"Nothing in the (interim) curriculum prohibits a
teacher from teaching any of the topics in question, which include: consent,
use of proper names to describe body parts, gender identity and sexual
orientation, online behaviour and cyberbullying, sexually transmitted diseases
and infections," the three-judge panel wrote.
ETFO's lawyer had said there might not have been a legal
challenge if Premier Doug Ford hadn't also issued a warning to teachers who
said they would continue to use the now-scrapped version of the curriculum.
Some of the public statements made were
"ill-considered," the court said, but did not constitute an
infringement of the charter.
New curriculum in fall, minister says
Education Minister Lisa Thompson said after getting feedback
from public consultations on the health and physical education curriculum, a
new one will be ready for the fall.
"I think it's going to be safe to say that there were
opportunities to introduce even more realities in terms of what students face
today," Thompson said. "Cyberbullying, consent, human trafficking —
those are all issues that we have heard through our consultation that parents
want to be addressed."
The Liberal curriculum included lessons on cyberbulling and
consent.
Thompson would not say specifically if gender identity would
be part of the new curriculum.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association called it "a
crummy day for equality" and said they intend to appeal.
