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Will anyone listen to family's protest about Bill 115? Continued from page 6 7 · Wednesday, January 16, 2013 OAKVILLE BEAVER · www.insideHALTON.com hours reorganizing and rebooking. Friday's day of political protest, whether it materialized or not, was a hardship to students, families, service providers and many others in Ontario. It caused uncertainty and concern in the day leading up to it and the day. I am not writing this to point fingers. I'm not sure who I should be pointing at. I realize there are some in the community who are critical of teachers and unions: teachers for having comfortable, well-paying jobs and unions for having too much power. There are some who take a very critical stance of the government for its handling of this matter and for the creation and enactment of Bill 115. It is a great irony that the Bill is called, Putting Students First. In reality, it seems students have been put last, along with their families. Our elected school board has been rendered powerless in this situation. This, too, is very unfortunate and unacceptable. Students and their education have become political pawns and that is not right. Students and their families lost out Friday in this game of one-upmanship. They have been losing out all year, as the air of uncertainty has hung over our school. Like any other career, there are outstanding teachers and there are teachers who have chosen their path because of the perks. It is my belief teachers are fostering the leaders of tomorrow and should be working with students to grow a love of learning. It isn't an easy or cushy job. Teachers should be compensated and valued for this. At the same time, Ontario, Canada and the world have faced unparalleled times of recession and restraint over the past few years. We operate under a new reality where many have lost their jobs and many families have had to make changes to make things work. Many people have accepted changes in the workplace in an effort to keep the jobs they love. I read various newspapers each morning about the situation with education in Ontario. I read blogs. I am involved in my children's school. Yet, I am not certain I have a good grasp on the key issues that remain and continue to cause chaos in pub- lic education. Is the remaining issue the principle that collective bargaining rights have been taken away? Is this the issue that threatens to keep extracurricular activities out of our school for a full two years, punishing our students, families, and teachers and schools? I believe that collective bargaining is indeed a right. A right that needs to be taken seriously and not walked away from. Collective bargaining should bring efficiencies to the contract process. In order to preserve this right, everyone needs to come to the table and stay at the table until an agreement is reached. The right to stay at the table needs also to be valued and deals, no matter how tough, need to be forged, rather than fought in the media. It is critical people in this province understand what exactly both sides would characterize as the issues at this point. I would urge both the Provincial Government of Ontario, the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (ETFO) and Ontario Secondary School Teacher's Federation (OSSTF) to prepare a concise factsheet outlining the key issues, their proposed solutions and rationale, as well as the constituents they are mandated to represent. It would also be interesting to include information about how they make decisions and establish approaches (i.e. have to be passed by a certain percent of members, etc.) within the respective organizations. I believe in public education and in Ontario, we should strive to have the best public education system in the world. This won't be possible until the current issues are resolved. I note, with interest, that Friday's strike action came to light mid-day on Wednesday and a decision was rendered by the Ontario Labour Board early Friday morning. That is, a decision was made in just over one day. I note, with concern, that the broader issue has been ongoing for many months and a court case promises to take much longer. During that time, uncertainty and hardship will remain for students, families, service providers, school boards, administrators and teachers. The threat of removing extracurriculars for the two years of the current contract remains. For many students, these extra activities are what keeps them coming to school. Don't take those away. Union and political leaders, please stop using time and energy trying to sway opinion in the media and taking measures to show us who has more power by imposing larger fines and taking bigger and more punitive action. Please examine closely the success factors that allowed other related contracts to be negotiated and use those factors as applicable here. Please get back to the most important work of settling this matter quickly and bringing certainty and opportunity back to our school system. My views may be overly simple. My views may be uniformed or biased. My views are mine and they are based on my experiences, concerns and views as a parent. Rather than complain about this situation at the dinner table, to friends, at the bus stop, in the work place, in the halls of the school, I have decided to put my concerns on paper. I feel so frustrated and powerless. This is my family's day of protest. Will anyone listen? Tracy Ehl Harrison, Oakville