Special Education cannot be cut – Judge
. School discriminated against boy by cutting special-needs program: top court A landmark Supreme Court of Canada decision has put schools on strict notice that they cannot evade their responsibility to accommodate children with special needs. Waving aside the financial woes of a North Vancouver school board, the court concluded on Tuesday that it had […]
Public education by numbers
$2billion: the amount McGuinty’s Bill 115 extracts from Ontario’s public education budget over 2-3 years. $2billion: the amount Ontario would generate per year if we simply restored the corporate tax rate to 14%; the 2009 level. ________________________________________________________________________ Sources: Ontario Ministry of Finance, Ontario Budget 2012, Public Service Alliance of Canada
Dear Minister Broten
I am writing to you today as a parent of a child in Ontario’s public school system. Specifically, my child attends Public School in Toronto. Over the past weeks since school began, I have been shocked and disheartened to see first hand the impact of the cuts you have made to our prized education system. […]
Students aren’t high on the priority list
“Governing is about priorities. Students can’t help but notice they aren’t high on the list.” David Suzuki June 2012 The Campaign for Public Education has closely examined Ontario’s Bill 115 and is, frankly, appalled with this legislation that will extract more than $2 billion from education funding. It was not done to expand or […]
Education “too important to arbitrarily overhaul just to save a buck.”
.Kayla Smith, a Grade 12 student at Bramalea Secondary School [seen here addressing Saturday’s rally], isn’t happy about losing her extra-curricular activities but she feels protesting the provincial government’s new legislation, Bill 115: Putting Students First Act, is more important. Smith was at the forefront of a demonstration by Bramalea students on the lawn of Queen’s Park on […]
Bill “seriously impairs fundamental rights in a manner that cannot be justified in a free & democratic society,”
Sukanya Pillay, a director of the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, speaks during a press conference in Toronto on Thursday August 30, 2012 held by the CUPE, ETFO and OSSTF to voice their opposition to a bill which affects the rights of Ontario education workers to collective bargaining. The Association issued a stern warning about the […]
Bill 115: School boards big loser!
from: The “crisis” in education – Part 2 Bill 115 “…will result in a major shift in control over Ontario’s education system. The Bill [gives] the provincial government a number of new legal rights: to impose contracts, ban strikes and lock-outs (and even the threat of strikes) and circumvent the courts, the Human Rights Code […]
High-quality, publicly-funded education
Many mocked us, many vilified us, many told us we would achieve nothing. But after a wave of student mobilization in Quebec through the spring and summer, we can count our victories: on the first day of the new PQ government’s term, it cancelled a tuition hike and repealed an anti-protest law that curbed basic […]
Teachers mourn Bill 115’s passing
Several hundred teachers, many clad in black, attended a public school board meeting Tuesday night in unified protest against the Liberal government’s new education legislation. About 300 teachers, mostly local members of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF), filled the Peel District School Board’s meeting room beyond its seating capacity. The regular twice-monthly meeting […]
Bill 115 attacks constitutional rights
Bill 115 is “an unprecedented attack on the civil liberties and constitutional rights of educational workers.” -Canadian Civil Liberties Association. A legal challenge has been launched. Meanwhile many provisions of Bill 115 are unclear & will be the subject of ongoing disputes.