Damaging bill

I am writing this letter to express my concern over the impact that Bill 74 (the Education Accountability Act 2000) will have on our local education system.
Presently, the section of this bill that has received the majority of media attention is the potential mandatory extra-curricular. Although, traditionally, extra-curricular activities have been done freely and of the goodwill of teacher volunteers, the minister of education now feels these extra duties may need to be forced.
This section of the bill allows these extra duties to be assigned 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with no maximum limit on the number of hours a teacher could work a week.
I don’t believe that it is in the best interest of the students, teachers, or the community that people be forced to do extra activities that depend on goodwill.
The minister has said the section on mandatory volunteer extra-curricular activities would be left in the bill but would only be used as necessary. I believe this reinforces the minister’s intent to use this legislation.
One must ask, how will Bill 74 hurt our local education system? Bill 74 will take away the ability of the Rainy River District School Board to act in the best interest of the students and the community. If the minister is “concerned” that the board has made a decision that, in her “opinion,” is improper, she will have the power to dismiss our local representatives from the board, fine our locally-elected trustees up to $5,000, and be able to deny this publicly-elected individuals from sitting on any public board for five years.
Furthermore, the board members will be personally liable for any board expenditures which the minister does not agree with.
I fear that these punitive powers will result in future boards making decisions which will only reflect the agenda of Toronto.
Another section of this bill addresses the workload of secondary teachers. The minister had decreased the average secondary class size from 22 to 21. They are able to do this because teachers will have more classes–and less time for students.
This decrease still means that to meet the board-wide average of 21, there will still be the potential for large classes in our schools.
To offset the lower class size, Bill 74 changes teaching time from an average of 1,250 minutes to an average of 6.67 periods of ministry-approved courses. This means that the local teachers will teach more classes, and more students, and so be able to offer less help to individuals.
In the April agreement with the RRDSB, the OSSTF and the board recognized the need for remedial and extra help. But this bill gives no time for remedial time, and less time for preparation and individual attention for students.
In addition, there will still be the requirements of supervision and extra-curricular activities. Unfortunately, this increased time will burn out teachers and have a negative impact in the classroom.
Finally, I must mention my fears regarding the minister’s new ability to interfere with the collective bargaining process. Over the past two years, our local public school board and teachers’ federations have worked hard to build an excellent relationship which recognizes collective agreements that create a positive working environment (which means a good learning environment for our students).
Bill 74 allows the minister of education to override and break agreements negotiated in good faith between the school board and the teachers’ federations. Furthermore, the minister can punish those involved with non-compliance of ministry regulations.
I question the morality and motives of a government that gives power to third parties to break mutually-agreed contracts.
I also should mention that at no time can any action taken by the minister of education be subject to legal challenge. This is unprecedented authority in a democracy that recognizes individual rights.
Locally, we will have to deal with the problems associated with the Ontario teacher shortage. It will be next to impossible to fill vacancies in our schools because there will be few applicants.
Furthermore, the conditions for working in Ontario are such that other opportunities are more appealing. The United States currently is actively recruiting our well-qualified Ontario teachers to fill the positions in their shortage crisis.
Bill 74 is punitive in nature and will only damage our local education system. This bill stands to set democracy on its heels, and one must ask why? I do not believe this legislation is in the best interest of our students–or our local education system.
Signed,
Ed Ojala,
President,
OSSTF 5B