Straight from the Horses’ Mouths

The Government and the Unions on the key issues

Read and consider both sides of the issue. The points were taken directly from documents provided by the government (the pro-Bill 160 side, represented in blue), and the Ontario Public School Teachers Federation (the anti-Bill 160 side, represented in red). Again, these are not our personal (read: biased) judgements as to whether certain parts of Bill 160 are bad or good. These are simply quotes from the government and union documents concerning the key issues.

Cutting Preparation Time:

• “High school teachers in Ontario currently spend as much as 20% less time with their students than teachers in other jurisdictions”.
• “According to the EIC report, high school teachers in Ontario, on average, spend 3.75 hours of their working day teaching students compared to the national average of 4.5 hours a day”.

• “Teachers already do much of their work outside of school time, in addition to time spent on extracurricular activities. Many of the activities teachers use their preparation time for can not be accomplished outside of school time. These include assisting students with special needs, consulting with specialists, setting up computers and preparing labs, workshops and classrooms”.

Control of Class Size:

• “Currently, class sizes are larger than the number of teachers would indicate. In the elementary grades, there is one teacher for every 17 students, but average class size is 25. In the secondary grades, there is one teacher for every 15 students, but the average class size is 22”.
• “The new bill would, for the first time, prevent school boards from increasing class size”.

• “Class size, pupil teacher ratio (PTR), preparation time, programming for special needs students, and specialist teachers are the direct result of collective bargaining and pressure by teachers for better learning conditions for their students. This will no longer be the case”.
• “In recent years, budget cuts have forced class sizes up. Research is clearly on the side of smaller classes. Without the ability to negotiate class size, we may see many more classes in the high 30s and 40s”.

Use of Uncertified Teachers:

• “Students can benefit from having access to professional musicians and artists when they learn music and art. Human resource specialists can assist students when they seek guidance counselling. Computer programers can steer students through the latest computer technologies”.

• “Placing persons without teaching certificates in teaching positions is not being done to improve the quality of education. It is simply a way to save money. It is a way to remove funding from a system that is already underfunded”.
• “Teachers know how students learn, how to evaluate students' progress, and how to manage a classroom, and that instruction in one area does not occur in isolation from instruction in other areas. They are also knowledgeable about the essential stages of development, socialization and learning”.

Provincial Control of Funding:

• “The province, not school boards would be responsible for setting all education property tax rates. Taxes will stay in the community where they are raised”.
• “A more effective and fair funding system would focus resources on the classroom and fund all students according to their needs”.
• “Students across the province would have access to the same high quality education regardless of where they live”.

• “The government has stated that Ontario's spending on education is out of line and that another $1 billion must be cut from education to bring us to the level of the rest of Canada. In fact, for the 1996-1997 school year Ontario ranked 49th of 63 North American educational jurisdictions”.
• “A recent report by the Canadian Teachers' Federation shows clearly that Ontario spent only $103 per pupil more than the Canadian average for 1996-97, not unreasonable, given the diverse population and geographic realities of the province”.
• “Environics polls taken over the past two years consistently show that 90% of the Ontario public believes that education spending should remain the same or increase. Slashing an additional $1 billion from the Ontario education system translates into $500 less per pupil per year. This will only serve to reduce the quality of education for Ontario students”.

These are by no means all of the issues - but they are the ones that will affect students most. For more information, we suggest that you vist the Ministry of Education and Training, and the Ontario Public School Teachers Federation. There are links to more resources on the Strike Diary page.