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2 - Orono Weekly Times Subscriptions $38.09 + $1.91 GST = $40.00 per year. No Refunds. Publishing 48 issues annually at the office of publication. "We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Publications Assistance Program (PAP) toward our mailing costs." Wednesday, September 9, 2009 ORONO WEEKLY TIMES - 5310 Main St., P.O. Box 209, Orono, ON L0B 1M0 E-mail: oronotimes@rogers.com or Phone/Fax: 905-983-5301 Publisher/Editor Margaret Zwart Production and Display Advertising - Donna Wood Classified Advertising - Sue Weigand The Orono Weekly Times welcomes letters to the editor on subjects of interest to our readers. Opinions expressed to the editor and articles are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Orono Weekly times. Letters must be signed and contain the address and phone number of the writer. Any letter considered unsuitable will not be acknowledged or returned. We reserve the right to edit for length, libel and slander. If your retail or classified ad appears for the first time, please check carefully. Notice of an error must be given before the next issue goes to print. The Orono Weekly Times will not be responsible for the loss or damage of such items. A recipe for failure in Ontario's schools By Michael Zwaagstra Research Associate Frontier Centre for Public Policy Question: What's the surest way to ensure future failure? Answer: Double up on past strategies that have led to present failures - a good example of which comes from Ontario where fully one-third of elementary students in that province are below the provincial standard for reading, writing and math. Things aren't looking much better in the upper grades since about half of the students not meeting the math standard in Grade Six continue to remain below the standard in Grade Nine applied math. Considering that applied math is geared to students heading for the workforce or community college, these numbers are worrisome indeed. Even more disappointing was the inadequate response from Kathleen Wynne, Ontario's education minister. In an interview with the Canadian Press, Wynne acknowledged reason for concern. However, she went on to note the Ontario government has measures in place to address the situation. That includes reduced class sizes, more money for math and literacy coaches, and expanded availability of full-day kindergarten. Unfortunately, none of these measures are likely to result in better test scores for students. While many people assume smaller class sizes result in improved learning, this belief is unsupported by research evidence. For example, class size limits imposed by state legislatures in California and Tennessee several years ago had a minimal impact on student performance but a major impact on total education spending. There is little reason to expect anything different in Ontario. Also, math and literacy coaches are a fancy way to identify classroom teachers who provide demonstration lessons for other teachers. The idea that the provincial government needs to provide funding so teachers can share teaching strategies is a symptom of a much bigger problem. If collaboration and teamwork isn't standard practice in Ontario schools today, putting formal math and literacy coaches in place will do little to change this culture. The Simcoe County District School Board recently conducted a formal evaluation of the effectiveness of math and literacy coaches in improving student test scores. Although the report contains plenty of positive anecdotes from teachers who feel their teaching improved as a result of this training, the hard performance numbers showed little difference between schools with math and literacy coaches and those without them. In short, the measures proposed by Wynne are essentially cosmetic in nature and unlikely to make a significant difference in the quality of education students receive. Fundamental reforms at a more basic level are needed. Ontario's provincial government should start by examining the quality of the curriculum it provides to students. For example, many curriculum guides are unacceptably vague and fail to identify specific content students need to master. Take a look at any English Language Arts guide. You'll find little emphasis on proper grammar and spelling and virtually no prescribed books all students should read. In mathematics, many schools no longer expect students to memorize their multiplication tables and perform long division without the use of a calculator. With this lack of emphasis on concrete knowledge and skills, it's no wonder students flounder and fail. Since the results from Ontario's provincial standards tests clearly indicate some schools outperform others, parents also need much greater ability on where to enrol their children, i.e., in successful schools. Many higher-income parents have the ability to move to neighbourhoods with better schools or pay for their children to attend private schools. However, lower-income families often find themselves trapped in failing schools. Ontario could break this cycle of hopelessness by allowing parents to send their children to any school of their choice. The per-pupil funding provided to school boards for each student enrolled in their jurisdiction should instead be controlled by parents; the funding thus follows their children to any school. In this way, parents could use information about the academic success of schools to help them choose an appropriate school for their children. Successful schools will grow and prosper while failing schools will improve or be shut down. The status quo in education is unsatisfactory. If parents want to see real improvements, those in charge of their schools need to make real changes. Politically Speaking by Bill Stockwell Back on July 13th Council instructed municipal staff to recommend how they should deal with an operating deficit of $2.1 million and a shortfall of $875,000 in the Development Charges Account for Indoor Recreation and Library Facilities. You may recall that Yours Truly did a Politically Speaking column at the time taking Council to task for misreading the impact of a recession that governments around the world were attempting to deal with. At any rate at the August 31st meeting Council received recommendations from the C.A.O. and the Treasurer suggesting ways and means to plug the gap. The big ticket numbers that were recommended, and eventually approved, were $450,000 from municipal reserve funds, $250,000 from interest payments from Veridian, the folks that deliver hydro electric to parts of Clarington, and $655,317 from deferral of uncommitted capital projects. Now, the problem is that all of these amounts are one-time items. When the 2010 Operating and Capital Budgets are on the drawing board the starting point revenue stream won`t have these dollars to support it. The reserve account will be $700,000 less, Veridian dollars will be scarce, and those Capital Works that were delayed in 2009 will be begging for bucks in 2010. The interesting point will be that 2010 is an election year and Council will be looking at a womping tax increase to cover their 2009 indiscretions, or another raid on reserves, or indiscriminate use of the municipal credit card, which helped get them into this fix in the first place. For the last nine years Clarington Council`s attitude towards municipal financing has gone through a drastic change. When Dianne Hamre left the mayor`s office just prior to the 2000 municipal election Clarington`s finances were in good shape. This just wasn`t by chance. Hamre treated the taxpayers money with respect. She had served as mayor during a time that "doing more with less" was the clarion call for municipalities. Municipal staff was kept to a minimum with department heads wearing more than one hat. Debenture funding wasn`t all that popular with the councils of the day. Pay as you go was what most of the councillors grew up with and practiced that creed in their elected positions. However, that all changed with the election of Mayor John Mutton. Mutton was a high-rolling spender. Unfortunately he was surrounded by a council that couldn`t keep him in check. Land use development went crazy and council supported anything that the mayor wanted. Probably the most outrageous action by council during the Mutton years was the construction of the Total Hockey project that costs taxpayers two million dollars to construct and $250,000 to operate. Elected officials have to constantly be re-educated to the fact that it takes big bucks to build STOCKWELL see page 10