Debora Kelly
Columns
November 13, 2008 02:08 AM
Debora Kelly
The timing is unfortunate.
After a decade of labour peace in our schools, elementary teachers are drawing a line in the sand.
The Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) is warning its 73,000 teachers could hit picket lines if the province doesn’t close the student funding gap between secondary and elementary schools.
Federation president David Clegg brought his equity message tour to York Region this week to decry the $711-per-student funding chasm that means fewer textbooks, computers, instruments, specialist teachers, teacher-librarians, guidance counsellors and technology programs in elementary schools. The union won’t return to the bargaining table until Queen’s Park vows to end the “discriminatory” funding.
The union is stressing the issue isn’t salary, it’s “fairness”.
Who would argue against giving elementary schools better resources and students a better chance at success in crucial early learning years?
It’s just that, right now, many of us in this newly crowned deficit-ridden have-not province are watching layoffs mount and economic turmoil continue unabated. Some are us feel lucky to have jobs, as family, friends and co-workers lose theirs.
The severity of the oncoming storm perhaps is best highlighted by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s new cordiality with the premiers this week in agreeing the federal government should provide aid in accelerated infrastructure spending, relaxed rules for retirement savings and maybe even a bailout package for our hard-hit automotive sector.
It’s not a good time to ask for more when many of us are assessing priorities and preparing to do with less.
Teachers have until Nov. 30 to accept the offer of 3 per cent annually for the next four years in salary, increased benefits, increased staffing for grades 4 to 8 and class size reductions, by half a student, in grades 4 to 8. The ETFO wants class sizes reduced by at least three fewer students in grades 4 to 8 classes, as in high school, and 35 more minutes a day in preparation time, as opposed to eight, up to 75 minutes.
Education Minister Kathleen Wynne said it’s a “generous” offer in tight times — which the Catholic and French-language unions have accepted — that amounts to almost $1 billion in catch-ups and $2.5 billion more in education spending.
The funding formula traditionally awarded high schools more money because their teachers needed more credentials and the curriculum required big-ticket items, such as labs and machine shops. However, the EFTO raises legitimate questions, such as: Why is staff development per elementary student $1 less than per secondary student? Why are classroom supplies funded at $105 more for a secondary student? Why are computers funded at $14 less per elementary student?
Apparently in agreement, the McGuinty government has narrowed the gap by nearly 50 per cent since 2003 with money for smaller primary classes and literacy.
As altruistic as their cause is, teachers will likely find little support among the public for a strike.
I have great admiration and respect for teachers. Unfailingly, my children’s teachers have demonstrated caring, commitment and, often, a deep passion for their profession. By no stretch of imagination could you call their jobs easy. That said, it’s simply the wrong time for teachers to think about striking.
The province refuses to ante up more money, but it is willing to re-allocate dollars based on EFTO priorities.
If teachers are serious about their claim this battle is, in Mr. Clegg’s words, about “mak(ing) elementary education in Ontario all it can be”, they should get back to the bargaining table.