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36 WATER ST., PORT PERRY, ONT. LIL1j2 Phone ; (905) 985-6397 Fax : (905) 985-1410 B EDITORIAL Can't afford JK Starting this September, the Durham Board of Education will "welcome" nearly 4,000 new students, and some of them will not yet have reached their 4th birthday when they arrive at school for the first day of clase. They are fhe Junior Kindergarten students whom the province of Ontario seems to think should be starting school at such a tender age. It is a program that the Board doesn't want and one has to wonder just how many parents sent petitions to Park demanding that their four-year olds start their formal education this September. The demand for Junior Kindergarten came directly from the provincial Ministry of Education, leaving the Durham Board absolutely no choice in the matter. At one time trustees seriously considered just ignoring the edict from above, but that could have put the Durham Board in court or the Province might have forced the issue by holding back transfer payments. The Durham Board is fundamentally or philosophically posed to Junior Kindergarten (though one wonders just how much benefit children at this age will get from it) The bottom line is that Durham can't afford it. The start-up costs are estimated at $24 million with the province kicking in $10 million. That leaves $14 million for the Board at a time when there have been serious cut-backs in existing programs with more to come in the next few years. Just why the province insists on p g through Junior Kindergarten against the wishes of trustees and local d officials d. Just what is the point of having a local school board if the wishes of those elected to office can be ignored at Queens Park? . One should also keep in mind that already the Durham Board has students getting their education in 500 portable classrooms. 'When the Junior Kindergarten crowd arrives this September, they will not be going to class in portables, So making room for them will mean nearly 4,000 other students will have to spend the year in a portable. There are good arguments to be made that the'best place for four-year olds is in the home. But the most pressing argument against it in Durham is money. We can't afford this at a time when education budgets are being cut back and the tax payer is ready to revolt if there are more hikes in property taxes. It is probably impossible at this time to roll bck the decision on Junior Kindergarten, but perhaps when the next provincial published by Ee -- Citizen Publishing Ltd. £ pre + Joi B. McClelland, Valerie Ellis 0CNA Member editor John B, McClelland = CCNA Member to ly owned and qperated Gn 2 CONA : newspaper, distributed, free of charge, a oe ded ef urge CONA Verified in and around Scugog Township. Cu SENA Ver aor i UGOG CITIZEN ions sold outside Scugog Township. EXPERTS TODAY SAID RISING INTEREST RATES WERE JUST A HICCUP IN THE RE IN A RELATED ST NOW ON UNEMPLOYMENT STATS WILL BE REFERRED TO AS A BURP AND THE. DEFICIT WILL BE KNOWN" AS INTESTINAL GAS... FROM ERY Badger your MP's to put taxes back on cigs To the Editor: A coloum heading in the Toronto Star dated March 31 stated that as a result of a study by the Federal department of Health on the effects of the recent reduction of cigarette a Quebec election this year while at the same time p ng the at the source by assessing a » "tax on all Ontario N.D.P. Government who will be calling an election next cigarettes destined for other countries and by packaging " for PY A "different from those for Canadi " taxes a 60% jump in ki was feared. There wasn't a peep of dissent from our 97 Ontario Liberal M.P.s when this order was enacted. Do these 97 M.P.s including our own Alex Shepherd realize the long term these red election rolls around in the next 12 months or so, you might want to ask the NDP candidate about this when he or she "| arrives at the door asking for your X on the ballot. Fair Lease This week a committee of three Scugog Township councillors will meet with a three-person committee from the Port Perry Agricultural Society (Fair Board) to start negotiations for a new lease on the Port Perry Fairgrounds. The Fairgrounds lease is a delicate issue as there are many people who remember vividly what happened the last time the Fair Board and the local council differed on this issue. It turned into one of the nastiest squabbles to hit Scugog Township in a long time. However, that is history now, water under the bridge. Both the Fair Board and the members of council believe a new lease can be hammered out that will serve both the Board and the municipality. But they also say there will have to be some "give and take" on both sides. Heading into the with that kind of attitude is a positive first step. Let's hope it continues, The last thing anybody wants now is a squabble like the one we witnessed a few years ago. A ten-year (or longer) lease extension with certain conditions is not unreasonable, 'igarette prices will have on Canadian Citizens in the form of future health problems and the increased cost to our Medical, Hospital and Drug plans for treating these liberal made health problems; or do they care? Do they realize that these health problems and the increased cost of treating them are going to fall on our Children; or do they care? Because of the loss of one half a billion dollars in Ontario's tax revenue does Alex Shepherd and his ninety six other Ontario Liberal Cohorts realize the immediate effect that tax loss has on the reduced possible health and education services in Ontario: or. do they care? The Chretien Liberal G t, by implementi the idiotic cigarette tax reduction with the total support of Alex Shepherd and 96 other Liberal M.P.s is simply pandering to the cigarette man and the Liberal Party who will be calling related diseases onto all Canadians whether they smoke . This is political manipulation of the worst kind. The cigarette smuggling tie is I would urge all Canadians to badger their M.P.s to have this hideous cigarette tax reduction rescinded. _ Yours truly, BC idtaom Library grateful for donations from the public To the RBditor; In the last few months, Tany, yeople have come forward and made very generous donations to the Scugog Memorial Pubic Library ' Collection Development fund, With n, we would like to publicly acknowledge their Our thanks go ne to Pat Kingstone, Hazel Wallace, Mabel Cawker, Bill Pyatt, Doris Richards, Joe Leinster, Joan. McClelland, Doris Williams, the Howat family and updated informatiomal. resources for the Library's collection. We also would like to thank . all of our library members who have been contributing to the donation fund for video ° resources. Thanks to these contributions, a total of $2,300. by the Library in was. collected 3 1998 and used to purchase additional video resources for the Library. from the Financial donations muy will always be d will