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8 - Oro(-nço Weekly ftimes, Wednesdlay. July 23,1997 Ganarasika Country C/o ggers The Ganaraska Country Chrystal Therteil, Carol Doris Sinclair and Mary Cloggers, are: Adriana Robins, Marie Henebery, Brown. Bannan, Laura Wood, by Marshall Jarvis, President of the Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association The Conservative govemn- ment's insistence that Ontario is over-spending on education is a classic exam- pie of (a) manipulation of public perception (b) an attempt to minimize criticism by label- ing individuals as "special interest groups" and shame- lessly redefining terms (c) cre- ative interpretation of statis- tics 11 Education Minister John Snobelen's deterrnination to reduce the cost of education at the expense of the educa- tional quality afforded stu- dents in the system has been evident ever since 1-is first few weeks on the job. At a meet- ing with minis try staff his true agenda was revealed. he told them that warning the public of a "crisis" in educa- tion was the way to enlist public support for sweeping changes to the school system. Since then, the ministry lias creatively sculpted the truth into the image of a bureau- cratic system out of control. Ffrst, the Tories sponsored a study, now widely discred- ited for is methodology, that conicluded that Ontario spends $644 more pet pupil than the average of the other nmne provinces. The govern- ment decided this meant $1 billion could lie removed from education. But when the comparison uses a standard- ized information base that includes Ontario to find a truly national average, Ontario spent only $103 more pet pupil for 1996-97. 1Why? The reasons for this higher spending are many and relate' to the complexîty of today's classrooms. We need more English-as-a- Second-Language programs with more than haîf of al immigrants to Canada under 18 settling in Ontar!o and more than haîf of those speaking neither English nor French. Ontario had endeav- ored to give students a head start by emphasizing early development in junior kinder- garten and avoiding later dif- ficulties through special edu- cation programs. We educate more returning adults. More of our youth stay in school until graduation. Next, the Minister created further havoc by claiming that 80 cents out of every dol- lar school boards spend is spent outside the classroom. Those 80 cents pay for the costs of heat, liglit, clleaning, transportation, .principals, vice-principals, library, guid- ance and consultants. Try running a classroom without them. Fortunately even the mînister lias had to retract from this fallacy. Teachers and parents were labeled as special interest groups when they challerlged the Minister's deffinition of the classroom. The Tories need this narrow definition to cre- ate the impression that their reductions are doing no harm in the classroom, a key elec- tion promise which teachers and. everyone close to a sèhool know lias already been broker.. The truth is that of the 63 provinces, tenritories and US states, Ontario tanks 46th in per pupil spending. More is spent on students in Georgia, Montana; West Virginia and South Dakota. More is spend in New York, Michigan and Vermont. More is spent in Manitoba, British Columbia and Quebec. The US nation- al average is 20 per cent hiÉgh- er than Ontario's. Forty-four states have a lower pupil-to- classroom-teacher ration than Ontario. And while our per-pupil spending dropped by $372 between 19-91 and 1996, the Americans are increasmng their speniding on education, a good investment in an increasmngly high-tech world. Ontarians outsîde the Queen's Park cabinet room seem in large measure to agree. An Environics poli found 188 per cent of those surveyed said the same or more should be spent on edu- cation, even if it meant high- et taxes or a higher deficit. Three out of four people said further cuts would hurt the quality of education, a position which classroom teachers are coping with daily. Seventy five per cent also said that they would give up the governrnent's prornised income tax reduc- tion if that would prevent cuts to education. When the government removed $800 million last year and a further $250 mil- lion this year, school boards struggled to maintain the quality of education through local means. Instead of being pleased that local ratepayers wanted to preserve the sys- tem's quality while they skimmed the provincial share to fund income tax reduc- tions, the Tories stated that local tax increases were "not acceptable." Heaven forbid our democratically elected school board trustees would decide to spend mon ey enhancing our children's educational opportunities. 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ONTARIO Date of Publication: Wednesday, July 23, 1997 Office of the Chief Administrative Officer 40 Temperance Street Bowmanville, Ontario LIC 3A6 P.O. #3471 OFF STREET PARKING What's education Worth: The Tory View, f,,ý 2. - ýý, 4 R