The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

Wednesday4 AprillO, 1996 Easter is celebrated and remembered as a time of sor- row and joy centred around one of life's most miraculous times documented in the Bible. Sometimes we lose sight of what Easter is all about. Easter baskets filled with dec- orative eggs and chocolate rabbits attest to a visit from the Easter Bunny. Succulent hams and roast turkeys adorn the Easter dinner table. Something recently hap- pened that made me remem- ber that miracles are possi- ble. No, a miracle did not take place. But the possibility of it happening became a reality. My friend Mary has a female dog about seven years old. On Good Friday her dog, Blaze, gave birth to eight pup- pies. When Mary checked on Blaze and her puppies in the dog house on Saturday evening the puppies were dead. Blaze would not leave the dead litter in her doghouse. She could not be coaxed out. Mary decided to try to force Blaze from the doghouse on Sunday. Ralph went out to bury the pups and was amazed to find one small pup still alive. Blaze and her lone pup Education is the main topic of debate at Queens Parke at this time. 1 remain committed to high standards in education. Our election platform also positioned edu- cation as a very high priority. As I read the papers, I am concerned with the schodl board announcements of lay- offs and the dislocation of teachers and other staff. I have personally spoken with rpany students, teachers, parents and trustees. Most people are also concerned with the current board option allowing them to eliminate Junior Kindergarten and the reduced funding for Adult Education programs. The funding reductions from the province represent in most cases approximately 3 to 5% of overall board spending. I admit that every board is cur- rently rethinking where they spend our money. I can only say that we must reduce 'ere moved into Mary's front all where she could tend oth animals because Blaze ad no milk and was very eak. Now, I have no idea how an nimal feels about dead litter >llòwing the birth. But I wear that poor Blaze had ars in lier eyes. She did not ant to leave the side of lier ne remaining pup. At times was hard to tel which one arted whimpering first. Blaze is a beautiful, fi-iend- black lab dog who lias ven birth twice in one year. or six years she never got regnant. Mary thought Blaze as unable to breed. Then addenly...twice in a year she ive birth. I watched Mary try to bot- e-feed the puppy. With big id eyes Blaze also watched. Life is a fragile thing. By a tenuous thread we n hold onto life and fight ur way back from a world of >parent non-existence. When others count us out e can draw strength from ie reality of miracles. Yes, a miracle can happen we are willing to be a part of . If we are willing to hold nto hope. If we are willing to :knowledge the possibility of .iracles. pending outside the class- oom. Of course this means ome non-teaching positions vill be eliminated causing hose teachers to move back nto the classroom. As a esult, there will be an overall eduction in the number of ositions. The staff reduc- ions announced are not nec- ssarily permanent but the .oards are required under the mployment Standards Act to orecast any significant eductions well in advance. Education is a very impor- ant service costing some -14.5 billion. Education is anded approximately 56% by ie province and the balance n your municipal property ax bill. Currently, Ontario pends some $500.00 more re child on education than ny other province. According o the Sweeney Report, >ntario school boards spend ome 47% of all expenditures utside the classroom. Sweeney recommends that we reduce these non-classroom expenditures to 40%. This 7% of non-classrool expenditure reductions would amount to some $1 billion. Included in these out of classroom areas are busing, maintenance, custodial and administration. There are several impor- tant reports and proposed pieces of legislation, before the government, which will impact our restructuring of education in Ontario. These are: - The Sweeney Report on School Board Amalganiation, which I have discussed briefly in prior articles. The many of the recommendations of this NDP commission make sense. The report suggests restruc- turing administration and reducing the number of school boards from some 168 to 86 boards. This means less administration and duplica- tion. Ask yourself how many $100,000.00 plus non-teach- ing staff do we need? - The Secondary School Reform is headed up by Pauline Laing, the former Director of Education of the Durham Board of Education. This task force is examining curriculum changes neces- sary to eliminate grade 13/OAC. Ontario is the only province with five years of high school. My own opinion, after being involved in some of the discussions on education reform, we must be competi- tive with other provinces and indeed the world.. I would like to see changes to the current de-streaming in grade 9. We cannot afford to eliminate the OAC year and continue with de-streaming in grade 9. In my view, we do not have to re-invent the wheel when examining curriculum changes. We should loot at other successful provinces that at present, have four years of secondary school. I will say more on this in future articles. - Education finance reform is also on the minister's agen- da. The current funding mix lias been the subject of many reports. The Royal Commission on Learning has suggested that the province completely fund education equitably across the province. This proposal does have merit, the province should examine the non-residential tax base (Industrial & com- mercial tax) to see if this rev- enue could cover education funding. This would eliminate the advantage of assessment rich boards like Toronto, which spend considerably more per student. The bottom line, is every student deserves to be treated fairly. - Bill 30, establishes the Education Quality and Accountability Office and amends the Education Act with respect to the assess- ment of academic achieve- ment. This legislations is intended to fairly and effec- tively measure student as well as systen performance to a common set of provincial standards. Every student, parent and teacher wants to know how they are measuring Perhaps tnere is a slngnt com- plication with the teachers unions like OTF and OSSTF but I am sure there are func- tions which do not conflict with the workplace related role of the teacher unions. - Bill 34, is an Act to amend the Education Act. There are provisions within this act, to allow boards of education to not offer junior kindergarten and offer adult continuing education in a dif- ferent format. The act also encourages boards to enter into cooperative agreements with other schoôl boards, municipalities, hospitals, uni- versities, colleges and other organizations to reduce cost Continuous Learning Spring Course REGISTRATION Register now for a wide variety of interesting and informative courses. Your January calendar is still in effect, also new and exciting courses are now being offered. Cal for your free copy of the course calendar today! For VISA or MasterCard registration, cal 721-3000 or 1-800-461-3260 Call today for more information at (9051721-3052 Educating You for the Real World. 1000 Business cards, Letterhead, and envelopes only $200.00 Call Sonbon Publishing 983-5301 mm M-M ù R ' A M-ýz),