During the past month we have been hearing about Toronto Catholic Board trustees and how they have over spent on their expenses by thousands and thousands of dollars. Now, Moira MacDonald of the Toronto Sun reports that things got so bad in Nova Scotia this week that a school board had to be taken over by the provincial government. Here is what MacDonald writes about that situation:

“In Nova Scotia this week the 12 trustees at the Strait Regional School Board — overseeing schools in Cape Breton Island and the northeastern part of the mainland — were turfed by Nova Scotia’s Conservative government for failing to get along and meet new ethical standards.”

Are we Canadians paying so much attention to federal politics that we are missing allegations of overspending and ineffectiveness at the thousands of boards of education across this country? What is even more of a concern is that it is a well documented fact that in some communities, few people actually vote in municipal elections.  For example, turnout can range from a low of 10% to a high of 76%.

Another phenomenon I noticed during the last municipal elections in Ontario, which may be at the root of this problem, was that trustees seemed to get re-elected, not on the basis of their record, but on name recognition alone.  In fact, I spoke to someone who ran for the first time and she admitted it is almost impossible for a new candidate to get elected. This doesn’t make sense, does it? We keep voting the same people in election after election without knowing whether they were effective or not.  

Clearly, something is going to have to be done about this situation and awareness is a good start.  

[...]

Yes, you read that right. The Ontario teachers’ unions are receiving taxpayers money so they can lobby government for more salaries and benefits.  And, all the various trustee associations — many of whom have already overspent — are also getting more money so they can lobby for more money.

That hardly seems fair. Here is the government website where all the latest so-called ”investments” have been listed. While some of the expenses could be described as investments in human resources (e.g., job training), the arts and youth, I certainly wouldn’t call funding that goes to union leadership and trustees associations as investments. Those items actually represent some serious spending.

For example, OTF (Ontario Teachers Federation) received $250,000 and ETFO (the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario) received $900,000 — for a total of $1.15 million — while the various trustee associations received $1 million.

Just how, I wonder, are those spending allocations actually investments? Are teachers’ unions and the OTF not already funded through the union dues each and every teacher pays? Are the trustees not already funded under the combined property tax structure and education grants? And, given how many trustees receive on average $20,000 — compared to their alloted $5000 – why does the McGuinty government continue to support them with even more taxpayers money?

In my opinion, teachers’ unions should not be receiving ANY taxpayers money and the trustee associations should ONLY be paid out of existing budgets.

[...]

H/T Cathy Cove with thanks.

I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before but there are possible options to get government-based funding for education and job training supports once someone has reached their sixteenth birthday — in Ontario at least — if not earlier. And, if those options are possible in Ontario, I suspect they are also likely through disability support programs in all of Canada’s provinces and territories.

While I have written about how to apply for Ontario disability benefits before, I haven’t talked about educational supports. No, it would not be through the Education Ministry. In Ontario at least, those types of supports are available through the Ministry of Community and Social Services under the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP).

On the weekend, a discussion was ongoing here at Crux-of-the-Matter on a thread about the Ontario Appeal Court sending the parents’ law suit (for autism therapy through Boards of Education) back to their lawyers to re-work their brief if they were ever to have a chance at winning. I was explaining how my now adult son with autism got funding back in the late 1970’s, 1980’s and 1990’s for private school tuitions and the penny dropped.

If then, why not now?

Some background. Since the Ontario government seems to have erased all trace of the original Vocational Rehabilitation Branch of the Ministry of Community and Social Services (MCSS), I’ll have to work from memory.

Sometime back in the 1970’s, a family took the Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Services to court because the Vocational Rehabilitation Branch (Voc Rehab for short) would not fund children and youth with learning disabilities. MCSS said the services were just for those 16 and older. To the best of my recollection, the parents and their lawyer argued that getting specialized care earlier in life was a pre-requisite to later vocational adjustment. The court agreed.

So, from that point on, we parents were able to apply for private school tuitions to send our children to schools that specialized in methods and strategies that would help them. Boards simply wrote a letter saying they could not provide the specialized services these young people needed or they identified them as “hard to serve.” Since the only provincially funded school was Trillium, private schools sprung up all over. Moreover, children who were blind and deaf also benefitted from this legal precedent — meaning the government even paid university tuitions to send young people to Gallaudet University in the U.S.

Not that getting the funding was easy. It was a very rigorous process but, my point here, is that it was possible. The main criterion was that students had to be in the normal intelligence range in some intellectual area — meaning that there had to be a discrepancy between potential and current functioning. If a child had behavioural problems as well, that too was taken into consideration when chosing which independent school or treatment centre to send the child and what type of treatment the child or youth needed.

In other words, if someone is diagnosed as intellectually disabled, they did not qualify because there was a separate program for children and adults who fit that profile.

We paid ourselves for the first two years but our son got funding after that and was able to attend a residential private school for several years. It really helped him and made it possible for him now to live independently in the community. He is married and does volunteer work.

Now, I should also declare that I know all about Voc Rehab from a professional point of view as well. When I was teaching university and operating a private practice for special needs children, youth and adults who had reading and writing difficulties, I had dozens of referrals over the years from Voc Rehab. What I did was work with students with learning disabilities (be they autistic or not) to get through high school, college and in some cases, university. I worked with them a couple of times a week teaching them learning strategies and how to use technical devices — on the work they had to do for their courses — and the success rate was very high. My point is I was a “private” practice and my fees were paid!

Then, in 1998, the Mike Harris government cancelled the entire Voc Rehab program by folding it into ODSP. Well, why didn’t I think of this before? If students could get funding before, why not now? So, I looked up the eligibility criteria and sure enough it says vocational supports are available from age 16 onwards. Just go to the main ODSP link in my first paragraph and scroll down the page to “eligibility.”

Well, if a group of parents were to sue again, only this time against ODSP (or the equivalent in other provinces and territories) insisting that pre-vocational supports are necessary for later rehabilitation, perhaps history would repeat itself, and funding for independent schools and treatment centres could be available.

Here is the application form. While there have been a number of law suits by parents trying to get funds to pay for autism therapies, to my knowledge those law suits have been directed at the provincial governments and/or the various departments of education and school boards.

Something else to think about.

[...]

Is education the key to saving the car industry? Yes, if we use the word “education“ in an all encompassing way to include on-the-job training, trades training, professional training, apprenticeships, college diplomas, from both private and public institutions, and university degrees. And, yes, if we include “education” to mean educating both those in the industry and the general public on what kinds of cars we will need that are better for our environment and energy efficient.

Thomas Axworthy writes on this topic in today’s Toronto Star. While he discusses a number of ideas, including the possibility of marrying access and quality, he primarily suggests that ”investing” in post-secondary education means that:

1. In order for Canada’s workforce to be competitive at home and abroad they all need a post-secondary education;
2. What is holding many back from achieving a post-secondary education are high tuition costs and few scholarships; and
3. Investing in higher education will somehow save the car industry. 

In response, I would say simply that even if every single person in Canada were to complete a university degree (and that is what Axworthy is talking about), that is not going to save the car industry. Put simply, not everyone is interested or suited to attend university. That is simply the old elitism — that a college diploma or an apprenticeship certificate is not as important as a university education.

Although there is little doubt that tuition costs have gone through the roof in the last decade, they are still low compared to the U.S. That said, I can’t imagine anyone not being in favour of students having fewer debts to start off their working lives. There is no question about that. But, linking scholarships to high marks will discriminate in another way. Not everyone is able to get high marks and that fact has very little to do with income levels.

Read the rest of this entry »

As Colin Perkel of the Toronto Star is reporting late this afternoon, the Ontario appeals court has left a door open for parents to continue to sue boards of education for publicly funded autism treatment within the school system.  Perkel writes:

“In a unanimous ruling, the Ontario Court of Appeal essentially handed back the parents some of their claims against the Ontario government and seven school boards, saying they need to be substantially reworked if they are to have any hope of succeeding in their lawsuit.”

“The Appeal Court rejected the parents’ negligence claims against the Ontario government, but left open the possibility that the school boards might yet be on the hook for how they ran programs aimed at accommodating children with special needs.”

“The court also tossed out a claim based on age discrimination related to Ontario’s now-rescinded decision to pay for ABA for children only until age six.”

So, while a door is slightly ajar in that parents can resubmit their case, it is far from open. I suspect that, in the end, the parents will only partially win. Why? Because therapy and treatment are under the Ministry of Health, Long Term Care and Community and Social Services — not the Education Ministry.

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It used to be that if someone didn’t want to attend university, it was suggested they “do something with their hands.” Thank heavens that is no longer the case. In fact, having some “trades” in my own family, I would have to say there is a lot more to working in the trades than working with ones hands — particularly given the many uses of computer technology today and the fact that most are entrepreneurs and self-employed business people.

In fact, I would go so far as to say those in the trades are ”salt of the earth” people. They work very long hours and without the cushy benefits enjoyed by many in the social sectors like teaching and accounting. And, when they take vacation time, they are not paid.  The bottom line is that we simply cannot manage without them — particularly when we need them in an emergency.

Well, it seems Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the federal Conservative government agrees with that view as well. Yesterday, for example, the PM participated in the Sarnia Construction Association’s 41st Annual Construction Apprentice Graduation. A total of 100 graduates were on hand to hear the prime minister say:

“You’ve made a great career choice. In the coming years Canada is going to need hundreds of thousands of skilled tradesmen and women. Without skilled trades people, you can’t build the factories, plants, schools, housing and other infrastructures we need to keep our economy growing and our country strong.”

And, the Conservative government has invested in the trades. For example, as the PM’s media announcement states:

“Since taking office the Government has undertaken several initiatives to support trades apprenticeship programs. They include: The Apprenticeship Incentive Grant, which provides $1000 per year to help apprentices pay for education and training during the first two years of an apprenticship program.”

There is also an Apprenticeship Job Creation Tax Credit — which provides employers with a tax credit of $2000 per apprentice for each of the first two years of their contract. Moreover, there is a “tools deduction” worth up to $500 of the cost of their tools.

So, to any young people who don’t know what they want to do with their lives, look at one of the many trades available because they are a great career choice.  No matter which trade — carpenters, drywallers, framers, siders, brick layers, welders, pipefitters, electricians, plumbers, auto mechanics and collision repair and others – all are the backbone of our economy.

[...]

It’s not often we read a good news story but this is one of them.  Duncan Mavin, of the National Post, tells a heart warming story about Nathan Jackson, who has autism and his special service dog and family pet, Homer. Nathan is non-verbal and recently lost his father to Lou Gehrig’s disease, a slow degenerative disease that first steals an individual’s ability to talk, walk and finally, get out of bed.

What struck me as I read this article was how Homer can soothe this young man even when his mother, Joanne Scott Jackson, is not able to – and something only his father had been able to do prior to his death.  Read this article and smile at how a dog really is mans best friend by alleviating, in this instance, some of Nathan’s autism symptoms.

Mavin writes: “Nathan is blossoming in an activity program that includes horseback riding and other physical activities. He will stay in the autism class at Newmarket High School until he is 21, and Joanne [his mother] hopes one day he will get a job. Joanne is trying to organize a newspaper route for Nathan and Homer, something very simple that would have made his father proud.”

Indeed!

H/T to Joanne (Blue Like You).

Earlier this week I wrote about how the Toronto District School Board “safety” report that was very short on specifics. Now, today, a Toronto Sun editorial tells it like it is. The board administration and trustees are in complete denial about the problem in Toronto’s schools. And, if they don’t face reality, the situation is going to get far worse. As the Sun writes:

“Four months ago, the Toronto District School Board paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for a report on school violence following the shooting death of 15 year-old Jordan Manners inside C.W. Jeffery’s Collegiate. Jordan died a year ago, tomorrow. The task force that produced that report, headed by civil rights lawyer, Julian Falconer, described a board where a ‘culture of fear and silence’ about school violence had taken hold at every level….These poisonous attitudes flowed down through board bureaucrats to superintendents, principals, teachers and students….How could we have gone from that to the board’s non-response to Falconer’s report this week — essentially a plea for provincial funding for more social and support workers — is but predictable.”

This is all about political correctness gone to the extreme, where everyone involved is afraid to say they have some criminal elements and thugs in their schools and that these thugs do not need a social worker, they need some consequences to their actions. Moreover, those who are causing the problems do not need to be told the “system is failing them.” They need to feel the consequences of their actions by taking full responsibility for what they do. In other words, the TDSB has to do whatever is necessary to stop allowing the rights of the perpetrators to take precedence over the young people who are being bullyied and assaulted.

In addition, people have to stop calling people racists just because they disagree about what the problem is or if they want to deal with the problem realistically. Maybe metal detectors or security personnel in a school, even for a short time, would not be such a bad thing if they discouraged crime. Futhermore, while social workers can help the next generation of children, the TDSB has to deal with the NOW as well. And, whatever is done should not be about TDSB image. It should be about student safety.

However, given how entrenched this political correctness is, I suspect that until it is faced and dealt with, Toronto schools are simply not going to be safe for anyone, least of all the students.

H/T to Joanne (Blue Like You).

SOR is an occasional guest on this blog.  She uses the handle “SOR” because we both share the same first name. Today she has responded to the latest Nik Nanos research poll regarding its “Economic Projection Study:” (1) whether respondents feel the economy will become weaker, stronger or stay the same; or (2) whether interest rates will increase, decrease or stay the same. Here is the e-mail SOR’s sent to Nanos earlier today.  Used here with her permission.

Nik:

Greetings.  I find it interesting on how numbers mean different things to different people.  For your first question you highlight the large negative difference between whether the economy will get weaker or stronger.  You’re right, there is a large negative difference but if you look at all of your information and include the ‘stay the same’ numbers the results show a 50:50 split.  In other words just as many people see the economy as remaining on an even keel or improving as those that see it deteriorating.  To me that is a positive response.
 
Your second question on interest rates shows something completely different when you include the ‘stay the same’ response into the analysis.  There we see a -7 difference rather than the +24 that you highlight.  More people see interest rates staying the same or going down which, in my humble opinion, is a positive response. 
 
By reading your interpretations without looking at the data I was initially left with the impression that this poll was not a good news story.  In fact, it is.  Cheers.  Sandra

When and if SOR gets a response from Nanos, I will post that as well. And, of course Nik is always welcome, as he has in the past, to respond here.

[...]

Update: Here is Nik Nanos’ response to SOR and a further follow-up e-mail from her.

Hi Sandra,
 
I think most business people would look at the net loss $4 and pick up $1 means a net loss (assuming all other revenue is unchanged).  Someone could also lump the negative with the stay the same and infer that things are negative – they are either staying the same or will be worse….that’s why I focus on the net impact, it is not biased in favour of one direction or another.

Cheers,
NJN
___________________________________________________________
Nikita James Nanos, CMRP
 
 
Nik:

It boils down to the glass half full/half empty theory.  Neither is more correct than the other, it just depends on your perspective.  I’m a glass half full person myself and will stick with my suggestion of a better explanation of your findings would have been helpful.  By leaving it as is you are leaving out some important information.  Cheers.  Sandra

 

Rob Roberts of the National Post has published a column this evening explaining that the Toronto District School Board’s safe schools report introduced today at a press conference will be considered at tomorrow night’s board meeting.  He describes the TDSB report itself, which is titled “On the Road to Health,” as “drowning in an ocean of platitudes.” For example, officials at the press conference said the report was on “safe, caring and inclusive schools.”  

Now, I have heard edu-babble before, but rarely with regard to something so deadly serious. They are dealing with violence, honest to goodness violence – rapes, stabbings and shootings. Yet, the board report is referring to inclusivity and programs to teach students to to be nice to each other.  On that point, board chair John Campbell says: “I know you’re looking for hard things. But I think we have to change the soft things.”

Soft things? No wonder the aunt of Jordan Manners, Louisa Manners, a teacher herself, shouted at the presenters today: “What role or what input has the family had in this plan? Has anyone gone to my sister, her children, myself? What role as an educator can I play in making our schools more safe?” What do those questions say about this so-called “leadership action team report” when the family of a murder victim has not been consulted? 

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