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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTimes Advocate, 1997-01-22, Page 4Page 4 Tithes -Advocate, Januaru 22, 1997 • Publisher & Editor: Jim Beckett Business Manager. Den smith Production Manager. Mb lora Advertising Barb Consitt, Chad Eedy News- Heather Mir, Chris Skelkos, Ross Haugh, Brenda Burke Production• Alma Ballantyne, Mary McMurray, Barb Robertson Brenda Hem, Joyce Weber, laurel Miner Transportation: AI Flynn, Al Hodgert Front Office & Accounting• Elaine Pinder, Sue Railings, Ruth Slaght Ruthanne NegriJn, Anita McDonald, Cassie Dalrymple The Exeter Times -Advocate Is a member of 8 family of community newspaprs- 'M. "" tech„ providing news, advertising and information leadership 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. Publications Magi Registration Number 0386 St1BSCRIPTION RATES, One year rate for Ontario subscribers - $36.00 + OST Two year rate for Ontario subscribers - $53.00 + OST 41JISi12E ONTARIO One year subscription - $63.00 + OST Two year subscription - $119.00 + OST Outside Canada - $102.00 Published Each Wednesday Mo?Kiny at 424 Main St., Exeter, Ontario, NOM 1S6 by J.W. Eedy Publkatlons Ltd. Telephone 1-519-235.1331 • Fax: 619-235-07641 e-mail address: tlmes.advocatesee`dy.com O.S.T. 1Rt05210835 i r A View from Queen's Park By Eric Dowd TORONTO -- Premier. Mike Harris is reals} a nice g i -- have you tried his recipe for one - bowl chocolate Bake? Harris is anxious to be seen not Merely as the 'Progressive Conservative who fires civil ser- vants and snarls that the homeless sleeping in the streets have only themselves to blame, and his recipe for chocolate cake has appeared in a Toronto newspaper/ . The paper's food editor explained that she was given it by "an impeccable source" that she would not identify, and that Harris used it to bake a cake in a class with grade '7 and 8 boys when he was a teacher in North Bay in 1971. The cake came "with no icing," the editor not- ed, which will seem God to those who watch Harris the politician, because usually 1-. has a shrewd eye for putting the best face on any- thing he does. The food editor baked it and found it "excel- lent. moist, chocolatey and best of all a cinch 16 make," and "began to think nice thoughts about him. After all, anyone who can bake a cake that good can't be all bard: t>,ws.r.d by sow Aki,, 197 Simple Cruelties Brenda Burke Budgeting blues Ws that reach -deeper ;in- your -pocket time of year when • mune of us get post Christmas. , ,season budgeting blues. .The wait is full of bills. incurred during those wonderous-shopping days of December when rushing around andgetting things done are foremost on the mind. Now we have January, with its serious snow and earth -shattering payments. Trying to scrape together r . enough dough for a decent RRSP contribution may he the biggest challenge for some. And isn't it depres$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.