Elementary teacher talks at standstill over student funding gap

Elementary teacher talks at standstill over student funding gap

Regional News

By: Kim Zarour, Staff Writer

Public elementary school teachers could strike if the province doesn’t commit to closing the student funding gap between elementary and high schools, union president David Clegg says.

Mr. Clegg was speaking after a news conference in Thornhill last night in which the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario reiterated its determination not to return to the bargaining table until the province promises to close the gap of about $711 it says exists between the two levels in per-student funding.

Ontario’s 73,000 elementary public school teachers and occasional teachers have been without a contract since Aug. 31.

“We haven’t contemplated any kind of job action or taken any strike vote,” Mr. Clegg told York Region Media Group, but “comments from the floor”, as he takes his message to teachers across the province, indicate most are prepared to walk.

“Salary is not the issue and has never been the issue. The real issue is fairness.”

The funding gap, which has been reduced from what it was when the Liberals took power five years ago, remains “discriminatory”, resulting in fewer textbooks, computers, musical instruments, specialist teachers, teacher-librarians, guidance counsellors and design and technology programs in elementary schools. It also means class sizes in grades 4 to 8 continue to be unacceptably high, Mr. Clegg, a former York Region local president, said.

The province’s current offer, which was accepted by the Catholic and French teachers unions, would not bring staffing levels to parity with high schools for 30 years, he added.

The issue could ignite the first labour dispute in Ontario schools since Premier Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal government was elected in 2003.

The last full-scale strike to affect York Region public schools was 10 years ago today.   

The teachers federation walked away from contract negotiations with the province and school boards earlier this year. The province, which is offering a 3-per-cent pay increase in each of the next four years, gave teachers a Nov. 30 deadline to accept the offer, or see it reduced to a 2-per-cent increase over two years.

The province’s offer fell “very far short of what is needed”, Mr. Clegg said.

Local teachers are very positive about the possibility of closing the funding gap, Nadia Ciacci, president of York Region Elementary Teachers’ Federation, said.

The federation met with York Region board officials in September to present its preliminary submission. Three more meetings have taken place since then.   

All content contained in this or any other yorkregion.com website including but not limited to textual, audio, video and any graphics are copyright 2000-2008 Metroland Media Group Ltd. and can not be used in any part without expressed written permission, with the exception of content in the yorkregion.com Pen & Pixel section, which requires the written consent of the authors.