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Tithes -Advocate, Januaru 22, 1997
•
Publisher & Editor: Jim Beckett
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News- Heather Mir, Chris Skelkos,
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1)1 1 ()f:i \1
It's about time
m
he recent announcemerii that backs and a variety of forced belt:
• tightening exercises. They have seen the
quality of education appear to decline
while the costs have been steadily rising.
'It had to end.
the Province of Ontario is assuming fi-
nancial responsibility for.deliveringed-
ucation is -welcome news for taxpayers.
Relieving local. School boards of this
responsibility is one way of restoring a -
balance of power which, in recent
years; has seven the,contbined forces of
teachers' unions -and siniiliarily-minded
administrator's running out of control
over the backs .of property owners -the
people who pay the bills:
For years, school boards -have never .
•
had to worry about where their money •
was coming from. They were operating
in an open-ended environment that al-
lowed
l lowed thenp tdrun to the, taxpayer
whenever -more money was -needed. -
There never,really was much of an -ef-
fort to standup to demands by teachers
for huge salary increases, out- of-this.-
world
f-this=world benefit packages, and even a gra- ,
tuity (tip) for educators who managed ,
to put in the required number of years.
Under the preiiious system; standards
were dictated by the province.
Local boards were caught in the mid-,
dle, required to provide education as
structed b. the province through, a sys-
tem that was largely administered by
former teacherrs. who themselves are
graduates of the school of never-ending
tax dollars.;
Many of these hoards have been
dragged through literally hundreds of
examples .of they following scenario. •
Teachers who,look around and find
other hoards who are paying their
teachers more, suddenly decide they are
underpaid and go for the gold on the -,
next contract. •- • - -
- ,It's a.fair'1y easy task to, get what they
want. The negotiations .are With the
elected board members but in fact, it is
the administration that usually prevails
when important decisions are made.
The administrators also know they
must. keep their salary„ gap between
themselves and teachers. Is it any won-
der our education system is in such a fi-
nancial mess where a huge percentage
of boards' budgets is spent outside the
classroom? • 0 r
Meanwhile. taxpayers have been go---
i
ing through downsizing, layoffs, cut-
, The Harris government has finally- ac-
cented responsibility for funding and de-
' livering education. -
The role of school board members will
be reduced to more of a volunteer poli-
tion without the responsibility of raising
taxes. '
Whatever trustees' final duties will be.
the situation will certainly be better than
their former role rubber-stamping ad-
. ministration decisions. =
,These are a few examples of board de-
cisions:
•The London board decided nobody in
their administration would lose his or
' her job because of amalgamation.
, •It bought_out senior teachers with lu-, -
,crative packages and then turned ground
and allowed these same teachers to coin-
- pate for supply positions.
*The Huron Board has been taken .to ,
task for competing with private enter-
prise by selling corttputers.
•Gino Giannandrea, a superintendent
with the Huron Board, haft recently been
- hired, by another board.. He'has la promo-
tion, obviously a larger paycheck, and
yet he, is entitled to take a•gratuityl pay-
' out (tip) of more than $40,000 with him. -
•Ever teachers are amazed at 'the re-
cent round of salary increases to some
administration staff with the Huron
Board. Apparently.one employee ,has re-
ceived an increase of $34,000 as the re-
sult of a change in job title. The board
has approved the jump in Jeanne
Dionne's salary because she has moved
from the position of human resources
administrator to a pay level equal to an
acting assistant superintendent.
•And not to be outdone, board mem-
bers in the Toronto area have even es-
tablished a severance package for them-
, selves allowing for $2,000 for every
year of service, however, we can ekpect
Premier Mike Harris to squash this deci-
sion.
The system had to change.
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r
A View from Queen's Park
By Eric Dowd
TORONTO -- Premier. Mike Harris is reals}
a nice g i -- have you tried his recipe for one -
bowl chocolate Bake?
Harris is anxious to be seen not Merely as the
'Progressive Conservative who fires civil ser-
vants and snarls that the homeless sleeping in
the streets have only themselves to blame, and
his recipe for chocolate cake has appeared in a
Toronto newspaper/ .
The paper's food editor explained that she
was given it by "an impeccable source" that she
would not identify, and that Harris used it to
bake a cake in a class with grade '7 and 8 boys
when he was a teacher in North Bay in 1971.
The cake came "with no icing," the editor not-
ed, which will seem God to those who watch
Harris the politician, because usually 1-. has a
shrewd eye for putting the best face on any-
thing he does.
The food editor baked it and found it "excel-
lent. moist, chocolatey and best of all a cinch 16
make," and "began to think nice thoughts about
him. After all, anyone who can bake a cake that
good can't be all bard:
t>,ws.r.d by sow
Aki,, 197
Simple Cruelties
Brenda Burke
Budgeting blues
Ws that reach -deeper ;in-
your -pocket time of year when •
mune of us get post Christmas. ,
,season budgeting blues.
.The wait is full of bills.
incurred during those
wonderous-shopping days of
December when rushing around
andgetting things done are
foremost on the mind.
Now we have January, with its
serious snow and
earth -shattering payments.
Trying to scrape together r .
enough dough for a decent
RRSP contribution may he the
biggest challenge for some.
And isn't it depres$ing. all that
cheery advice we get on either
starting or maintaining a budget. •
usually told in ,a New Year's
Resolution tone ofvoice?
.11 sounds simple. Make two.
columns..onn with numbers that
signify money coming in and •
one representing money, going
out. Looking at this lop -sided
sorry niess may be more •
discouragingthan encouraging.
Reduce debt, they urge. That's
easy. If yob get a big raise, win
a lottery or luck into a- • -
gold -digging fortune.
• -Resist credit cards. That's
easy too. As long as your
. dishwasher doesn't conk out ,
Your' car will make it until, ,
springandnobody's birthday.
wedding, Shower or vet visit is
just around the corner. ;
Being more of a words persdn
than a numbers person, T've
always had a tough time with
finances. It's not always the
spending that gets me. but the
thought of sitting down to.figure
it all out bank statements. -
income tax, insurance,. change -
of address. the fluctuating cost •
of bananas. ,
I think numbers are boring. -
•Not only that. they scare me
with their official angles and
curves and fancy dollar signs. A
bunch of numbers on a page .
usually signifies headaches and
,grief in this world of
make -ends -meet -with -what -.you
-have. ,
•
Pay day is.terrifying because.
after paying all kinds of bills
with colorful numbers written
all over them, I only get one pay
cheque'to balance them out and
it goes directly into•an account -
hefore 1 even get a glimpse of
the cold.' hard cash it represents.:
The anent of'mv'budget-
making is,l,eeping track of all ,
-cheque'. written, (by scribbling
'amounts and dates on the back
of the cheque book and 'never
looking at it again) and allotting
• a certain amount of funds' for
week,ly spending habits of my
husband and I. . •
The only trouble with this
setup: one of us.wif.use up•all
his or her spending money for .
the,week and <feg to dip into the!
other's loonies.
• I'm really glad men's wallets
aren't typicallymade. with a 0 '
separate compartment for
change. -
If I'm ever short. I either dig •
into the pockets of male pants
lying around on the floor or
skim the kitchen counter and '
bedroom dresser where I can
Usually scoop up all the change
Ineed. ',
On those desperate days, it's •
unfortunate gas bar attendants
don't always appreciate getting
-paid with a fistful of quarters.
Children she tested it on at a childcare centre
had commented it "tasted,so good, just like ,
• chocolate bars" and was "yummy -- really. ,;oft
on the inside."
This is the impression Har iS would like to
people to have of him that under his gruff exteri-
or
xterior beats a heart of gold.
Harris may have been trying to make; himself
look human when he deplored hospitals having
to postpone surgeries because of labor disputes
and added:"I know what it's like to try to ex-
plain to a young child about surgery. It's not
easy. To find out it has been cancelled, and
sometimes it (happens for other reasons, is not
easy.)
The premier has a son who suffers from cere-
bral patsy and his office said he did not want to
say any more about'it.
But his comment had the effect of creating
sympathy for him and leaving the, impression •
the premier is an ordinary guy and a parent who
has illnesses in his family and has to tillsehis
turn in the queue like'the rest of us.
It helps, by accident or design, to build an im-
Children can be useful weapons in politics
age of someone who is human. which is useful
for a politician.
Harris is not the first premier to mention his
children during pplitical wars. His predecessor,
New Democrat Bob Rae, let drop on TV.that "I
worry a lot more when one of rhy kids has a
cold than I do if something goes wrong at '
work," Which would make a lot of people feel
he had his priorities right. ,
Shelley Peterson, wife of David Peterson,
Liberal premier from 1985 to 1990, once said
she turned down an acting role "to be with the
kids."
William Davis, Tory premier from .1971 to
1985, gave his five children starring roles in
election pamphlets and mentioned "we are a in,
family. They'll campaign with me and
they'll be knocking on doors. They'd like me to
win."
Harris and his Tories should have learned by
now that children • can be useful weapons in
politics, yet have to be handled sensitively.
Whiletenerally against government handouts,
Harris set up a program funded by government
and the food industry to provide breakfast in
schools for needy children, something he had
pushed for in opposition.
But he unfortunately explained that these
were needed partly because many mothers no
longer have time w serve their children a hot
breakfast, and this was taken as insulting work-
ing mothers and brought their wrath down on
him. '
Community and Social Services Minister Jan-
et Ecker finished speaking to demonstrators
against daycare eats and went to put her arm
around a three -old boy with them, which would
have provided a human touch and photo-
graph.
But the toddler's grandmother yelled, "get
away from the child. Take your hands off my
grandson."
Those ,who for years have had to watch politi-
cians kissing babies must have prayed for the
day when one would bite back, and this was the
next best thing. It also showed there are risks in
trying to look warm and cuddly.