A Message from
Education Action: Toronto


July 5, 2012
A Message from Education Action: Toronto
The Growth of "Giftedness"
The Province Hammers the Toronto Board
Closing Schools and Shifting Programs
What's Happened to Ontario Teacher Negotiations?
Bill 55's Backdoor Privatization of Public Services
France Turns Back its Neo-Liberal School Reforms
Quebec's Student Protests
People for Education's 2012 Report

Dear Friends,

We're beginning this issue of the Education Action: Toronto Message with Part II of David Clandfield's analysis of the Special Education streaming system, which focuses on the growth of "Gifted" classes for mostly well-off children. This series is an essential opening up of the social-class and racial stratification increasingly imposed on our school system. To get you started, we're reattaching Part I of this series. Part III on Learning Disabilities will be in our September issue.

As you know, the Toronto District School Board has taken a terrible financial battering at the hands of the provincial government. To bring you up to date, Lesley Johnson from Social Planning Toronto, provides an overview of the final cuts brought down in June—making a total of over $100 million stripped this year from Board resources. As an additional framework for her report, we're re-publishing trustee Chris Glover's background analysis on this most recent budget crunch. We are also attaching, from CUPE 4400, Janet Bojti's account of the most recent TDSB moves on closing schools, shifting programs and muzzling public input—all in aid of imposing provincial cutbacks.

It's evident, too, that the province's austerity initiative is going directly after our teachers and school board workers in their current negotiations—on their wages, their sick days, and their pensions. It's an assault that is more surprising to our teacher federations (having built close ties to the Liberals over the last few years) than it is to our school board worker unions (largely CUPE and more inclined to support the NDP). In the attached article by Doug Little, from his blog (thelittleeducationreport.com), he focuses on our teachers' response to McGuinty's new program of cutbacks as they start to slip away from the Liberal orbit and move in the direction of the NDP again.

At the same time, as the province's public services (including its schools) are under direct financial attack by the McGuinty government, there has also been a major back-door government initiative (in Schedule 28 of Bill 55) to give it sweeping powers to privatize a vast range of these services (including those provided by our public school boards). To fill you in on this initiative we are attaching the legal opinion to CUPE Ontario on Schedule 28 by the law firm of Sack, Goldblatt, Mitchell as well as two briefs in opposition—from Peter Clutterbuck of the Social Planning Network of Ontario and from the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations.

The good news is that the neo-liberal assault on public education isn't entirely having its own way these days. As Le Monde informs us below, the election of François Hollande in France (now with a Socialist parliament) has meant a serious pushback on standardized testing, streaming, teacher recruitment and training and much greater teacher involvement in government education policy. And in Quebec, as we have seen, there has been an astonishing student protest against tuition hikes which has been joined by a broad popular movement protesting various dimensions of the Quebec government's austerity agenda. It is by no means clear where this resistance in France and Quebec will lead. There can be no doubt, however, of its importance, and we'll keep you in touch as best we can. In the meantime, in addition to the Le Monde article, we are attaching three articles on the Quebec student protests, which we think are helpful in understanding the underlying social forces.

Finally, in case you missed it when it first came out, we are attaching the very useful 2012 Report on Ontario Schools from People for Education.

Have a great summer and get a little rest. Next year is going to be hard on us all.

In solidarity,

George Martell and Faduma Mohamed
Co-chairs, Education Action: Toronto

Revisiting Special Education Part I
The Three Circles of Special Education

David Clandfield


It has been almost twenty years since I had last worked on public policy in Special Education. Back in the early 1990s, I was a Special Policy Assistant to the Minister of Education trying, without success, to persuade an NDP Government in Ontario to move ahead on a policy of inclusion of exceptional students—students deemed to have special needs—into regular classrooms with appropriate supports and accommodations. I was working with advocacy groups such as the Association for Community Living and the Down Syndrome Association who were pressing hard on what they regarded as a basic right for their children.

A decade earlier I had become a school trustee at the old Toronto Board of Education (TBE) just as the current regime of Special Education was coming into existence through a complex series of amendments to the Education Act called Bill 82. The TBE had just gone through a controversial review of Special Education, focusing on classes called Opportunity Classes that worked as bottom streams for often-racialized working-class students in the Inner City. Those classes taught a diluted curriculum to allow the students to learn "at their own speed." They slowed things down to the point that educational success—in the form of high school graduation or post-secondary education—was virtually closed off in the primary grades. A popular response called this process "Going Nowhere at Your Own Speed." It was as if the school system had essentially given up on these children.

So when I returned to consider Special Education in the amalgamated Toronto District School Board, it was dispiriting to discover that all of the same concerns were re-surfacing. Seemingly little or nothing fundamental had changed, even if the names and the official processes had evolved. In fact, if anything, the old boundaries had hardened and Special Education had grown into a really imposing edifice. And the discussion of policies and practices had become even more difficult.

Click HERE to download and continue reading:
David Clandfield—The Three Circles of Special Education

Revisiting Special Education Part II
The Growth of Giftedness

David Clandfield


Giftedness, then, is a designation in which the wealthier segments of our society are significantly over-represented and the poorer segments significantly under-represented. Similar figures in Tables 9 and 10 on pages 35 and 36 show over-representation of White and East Asian students, and under-representation of Black and South Asian students. So both income and race seem to be critical factors in skewing the demographic profile of Gifted students at the TDSB, as so often elsewhere. Now, how much all of this really matters depends on what happens next, once the designation had been formally made. The Brown-Parekh data make this all clear.

Click HERE to download and continue reading:
David Clandfield—The Growth of Giftedness

The Final Cuts at the TDSB
Leslie Johnson


Over the past few weeks we seem to have been much distracted by $143 pencil sharpeners and $20,000 sign installations. No doubt these gross expenditures need investigating and solutions must be found. Preferably, this investigation would be conducted by a neutral third party in an external audit, and not the Ministry of Education in its Operation Review. After all, this is the same Ministry that consistently raps the knuckles of the TDSB for bad spending choices, thus deflecting any role the Ministry might have in the general under-funding of our education system… "The education system isn't under-funded—you just need to get your books in order."

Yet in the face of the $100 million cuts the TDSB just passed to balance the budget of the under-funded board - isn't it funny how the conversation has been redirected?

Click here to download and continue reading:
Lesley Johnston—The Final Cuts at the TDSB

A Backgrounder on the TDSB Budget Crunch
Chris Glover


As you have probably seen in the media, the TDSB is facing a severe financial shortfall this year and is making a number of cuts to staff in our schools. I have written these notes to explain what is going on.

It is about a budget, so there are a lot of numbers. To orient you, here's an overview:
In any large organization the budget is divided into two sections, operations and capital. The operations budget covers the day-to-day operation of the school. It includes staff salaries and benefits, utilities, cleaning, textbooks, computers, etc. The capital budget covers buildings, additions, and major renovations. This document is primarily about the operations budget, although I do mention the capital budget when discussing the potential closure and sale of schools and in the recommendations at the end.

Click here to download and continue reading:
Chris Glover—The TDSB Budget Crunch

Closing Schools and Shifting Programs
Janet Bojti


Since 2008-2009, the TDSB has closed 16 functioning schools (see Appendix 1). Three were secondary schools with large Special Education student populations. Ten were elementary schools − all but two located in low income and/or high needs communities. Three were Adult Education sites for adult ESL and Literacy Learners. The adult sites were conveniently classified as non-operating schools so no Accommodation Review process was required. Three large overnight outdoor education sites were also declared surplus and two have been sold. In the same three year period, 10 elementary schools have been converted into JK to grade 8 and 11 new alternative schools were created.

Accommodation Reviews

The three Accommodation Reviews in 2011-2012 all started late in the school year. Public meetings began in mid to late April and finished in June. The outcomes are still unknown. The committee recommendations will not likely be completed and posted until after the summer vacation has begun and school communities are disbursed for the summer.

This year the Board has taken new initiatives to muzzle dissent for school closings.

Click here to download and continue reading:
Janet Bojti—Closing Schools and Shifting Programs

Teacher Negotiations in Ontario
Doug Little


Teachers for many many decades have accumulated unused sick days up to 20 per year, to be paid out as a 'retirement gratuity' at the end of service and an incentive not to take sick days for less than serious reasons. The province initially attempted to slash this back to 6 non-cumulative days. This was one of many totally unacceptable proposals from the government. All four unions have rejected these proposals. The province has attempted to move to 10 non-cumulative days to lure teachers back to the table but it is a non-starter.

Much like Mike Harris, the Liberals are attempting to remove $1-2 Billion from the education budget. They hope to not make "Harrisite mistakes" by cutting any programs or services like Full day Kindergarten or increase class size to attempt to keep parents from siding with the teachers but they have seriously misunderstood the effects of a demoralized school climate.

Teachers for usually the first 10 years of their career are placed on a 'salary grid,' which looks like a table. Their salary increases as they accumulate seniority and educational improvements. The government proposes not only to freeze all teacher salaries for 2 years but to freeze movement on the grid at the same time. Naturally the teachers find these propositions outrageous. The government may even be able to negotiate a very low % increase in wages, perhaps even zero for 2 years but a grid freeze and their sick leave proposals are beyond the pale. They constitute a declaration of war on the teaching profession and will, as night follows day, lead to serious consequences.

To top off the outrage, a grid built from many decades of collective bargaining needs to be "totally restructured" according to the government. Leaks from the government side and the MOE involve 'restructuring through the use of standardized test scores and merit pay' notwithstanding the total discrediting these have in any serious academic research. When pressed on these matters, the government will not deny it, postponing the discussion to a later stage. The government is courting an eventual total walk away from any form of extra-curricular activities as this totally unprecedented assault on collective bargaining continues.

The final, over the top reform the government is planning is "reconsideration" of the teacher's pension. If there is anything sacred to teachers it is the pension. Tinkering with it is "3rd rail politics" as far as they are concerned.

Click here to download and continue reading:
Doug Little—Teacher Negotiations in Ontario

What Does Schedule 12 of Bill 55 Mean for Ontario's Public Services?
Sack, Goldblatt, Mitchell LLP


You have asked for assessment of Schedule 28 to Bill 55: the Government Services and Service Providers Act, 2012 (hereinafter the Government Services Act).

As the following note indicates, the Government Services Act would have far reaching and adverse consequences for legislative and government control of and accountability for the provision of virtually all services provided by the provincial government or provincial public institutions, from Crown corporations to regulatory bodies. The Act is also intended to facilitate the privatization of services provided by municipalities and local public bodies including school boards and public hospitals. The notion that the Act is somehow limited in scope to Service Ontario is entirely unfounded.

In fact, the bill gives Cabinet sweeping powers to authorize contracting out or privatization of any and all "Ontario Government Services" (government services or 'OGS') to various persons or corporate entities including private, investor own companies that may be foreign controlled. Once that authority is given, there is no requirement for transparency or accountability for privatization decisions made by the Minister or quasi-Crown corporations similarly empowered under the Act—and this is true regardless of the character, scale or importance of the services in question.

Even more problematic is the fact that in key respects the authority of the Cabinet and the Minister under the Act makes it impossible for the legislature or the public to understand, let alone assess, the likely impacts of the Act.

Because of the complexity, we have attached a reference to the Act's key provisions, which we have paraphrased.

Click here to download and continue reading:
Bill 55, Schedule 28; A Legal Opinion

Bill 55, Strong Action for Ontario Act
Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA)


On behalf of the 17,000 professors and academic librarians that the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations (OCUFA) represents, we would like to outline a number of concerns with the budget bill. In particular, we object to the broad provisions for the privatization of public services outlined in schedule 28, the Government Services and Service Providers Act. This section of the budget bill would enable government ministries and broader public sector institutions to contract out services to third party service providers—a development in itself that OCUFA finds troubling. Moreover, the fact that the specific details of what services would be contracted out are unclear in the Act itself and are left to be clarified by regulation at a later date through a process without legislative oversight is extremely problematic.

In terms of the impact on the university sector, OCUFA is deeply concerned that the provisions of the Act could potentially enable and empower universities to contract out teaching services or even research services, thus undermining the work of faculty. The Act itself is silent on the specifics of the kinds of government services that could be contracted out and OCUFA recognizes that there is no specific provision for contracting out faculty functions outlined in the Act, nor does it appear that universities and/or faculty are the intended focus of schedule 28. Nonetheless, by including broader public sector institutions, including universities, in the Act, work that is part of the core mission of university professors and academic librarians could be contracted out to outside providers, thus eroding the integrity of the faculty role. As enabling legislation that does not include any limiting provisions, the Government Services and Service Providers Act makes possible a whole range of undesirable consequences.

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OCUFA - Bill 55, Strong Action for Ontario Act

The Problems with Schedule 28 of Bill 55
Peter Clutterbuck for the Social Planning Network of Ontario


The Social Planning Network of Ontario (SPNO) is made up of 25 local social and community development councils across the province providing social research, policy analysis and community education to improve the social and economic well-being of community members. SPNO joins with the Ontario Health Coalition and the Council of Canadians to seek the removal of Schedule 28 of the Budget Bill 55 which gives authority to a designated Minister to make agreements with any person or entity to provide government services.

SPNO has three major concerns with respect to the provisions of Schedule 28:

  • Schedule 28 is a major policy initiative in itself sliding into effect under the cover of the Budget Bill, and thus avoiding the serious public consultation and debate that good democratic practice demands for measures of such significance.
  • Schedule 28 opens the door to heavy privatization of public services.
  • Schedule 28 sets up the infrastructure for major Government divestment of its public responsibilities strictly in service to a short-term and seriously flawed deficit-reduction strategy.

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Peter Clutterbuck—The Problems with Schedule 28 to Bill 55

France Turns Back its Neo-Liberal Reforms
Le Monde


What can be done to give the coming school year a leftish twist, given that it has all been planned by the previous right wing government? That's the number one problem for the next Minister of Education. And that's not the only one! Whether Vincent Peillon gets the nod for the job or not, he has, as François Hollande's education advisor, been working on the priorities for the new minister's first weeks in office. And at the same time he is laying the groundwork for the more substantive policy development that will take up the summer. You cannot "rethink" our school system any faster than that!

Standardized tests

They have top priority. From the 21st to the 25th of May, the 750,000 students in CM2 (Grade 6) will be tested on mathematics and French. In his campaign, Hollande promised an end to these highly contentious tests. "The booklets are printed. Teachers are due to receive a 400-euro bonus for administering them. It is too late to cancel them outright. So teachers can use the tests to see how their own students are doing. But we are doing away with any nationwide tabulation of results," according to a statement to Le Monde by M. Peillon.

"We question the value of these tests, the release continues, because they confuse the issue. The aim was to combine an instrument that measured student achievement levels with a tool to monitor the performance of the system. But to monitor the system, you have to look at the evaluation reports from those whose job it is to do them." This is a much-awaited signal for teachers after years of "political" exploitation of what began as pedagogical aids.

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Le Monde—France Turns Back its Neo-Liberal Reforms

Quebec: Making War on its Children
J.F. Conway


A society at war with its children is a society in deep crisis. Quebec's student strike mobilization has set world records for duration and size. The organizational ability of the students has been remarkable and escalating levels of disciplined popular support nothing short of astonishing. Tens of thousands are mobilized day after day, week after week and now month after month, and student support for the boycott of classes grows and becomes more solid. The propaganda efforts of the Quebec government and the establishment media to smear the students as entitled, self-seeking brats, whining about modest tuition increases and seeking mayhem for its own sake have failed on two fronts. The students have responded with their own, well-organized information system which has found its way into the world press, and is transmitted instantaneously by cell phone and iPhone to hundreds of thousands. Those who follow the social media are better informed than those relying on the dailies and the big TV networks. The students simply dismiss the established media with the contempt it has earned. The smear campaign has also failed to turn Quebec society massively against the students. On the contrary, their popular support keeps building with growing numbers of sympathizers joining the students in the streets, often joyously banging pots and pans.

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J. F. Conway—Quebec: Making War on its Children

Ten Points Everyone Should Know About the Quebec Student Movement
Andrew Gavin Marshall


The student strikes in Quebec, which began in February and have lasted for three months, involving roughly 175,000 students in the mostly French-speaking Canadian province, have been subjected to a massive provincial and national media propaganda campaign to demonize and dismiss the students and their struggle. The following is a list of ten points that everyone should know about the student movement in Quebec to help place their struggle in its proper global context.

1) The issue is debt, not tuition
2) Striking students in Quebec are setting an example for youth across the continent
3) The student strike was organized through democratic means and with democratic aims
4) This is not an exclusively Quebecois phenomenon
5) Government officials and the media have been openly calling for violence and "fascist" tactics to be used against the students
6) Excessive state violence has been used against the students
7) The government supports organized crime and opposes organized students
8) Canada's elites punish the people and oppose the students
9) The student strike is being subjected to a massive and highly successful propaganda campaign to discredit, dismiss, and demonize the students
10) The student movement is part of a much larger emerging global movement of resistance against austerity, neoliberalism, and corrupt power.

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Andrew Marshall—Ten Points Everyone Should Know About the Quebec Student Movement

The Threat of Quebec's Good Example
Peter Hallward


The extraordinary student mobilization in Quebec has already sustained the longest and largest student strike in the history of North America, and it has already organized the single biggest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history. It is now rapidly growing into one of the most powerful and inventive anti-austerity campaigns anywhere in the world. Every situation is different, of course, and Quebec's students draw on a distinctive history of social and political struggle, one rooted in the 1960s

‘Quiet Revolution’ and several subsequent and eye-opening campaigns for free or low-cost higher education. Support for the provincial government that opposes them, moreover, has been undermined in recent years by allegations of corruption and bribery. Nevertheless, those of us fighting against cuts and fees in other parts of the world have much to learn from the way the campaign has been organized and sustained. It's high time that education activists in the UK, in particular, started to pay the Quebecois the highest compliment: when in doubt, imitate!

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Peter Hallward—The Threat of Quebec’s Good Example

Making Connections Beyond School Walls
People for Education Annual Report on Ontario's Publicly Funded Schools 2012


Contents
Acknowledgements iv
Highlights: Quick Facts 2
Introduction 3
School–Community Connections 4
Healthy Schools 6
Poverty & Inequality 8
Special Education 10
Support for Newcomer Students 12
First Nations, Métis & Inuit Education 14
Early Years 16
Libraries 18
The Arts 20
Fundraising & Fees 22
Declining Enrolment/School Closings 24
Students' Voices 26
Recommendations 28
Methodology 32
How Funding Works 35

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P4E—Annual Report 2012
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