Education needs reform, MPP says

The Ontario Progressive Conservative education critic said she finds it “quite troublesome” that Premier Dalton McGuinty isn't acting on several of Don Drummond's recommendations surrounding education.

Lisa MacLeod, the MPP for Nepean-Carleton, said it takes a “big chunk of change,” or about $25 billion per year, to fund the province's education system, and cuts need to be made to keep the province afloat.

Drummond, a retired economist who presented a report to the province in February on how to balance the province's books, said the deficit would double to $30 billion by 2017-18 if his recommendations weren't followed.

“Every single dollar that goes to service the deficit and the debt is one less dollar for students,” MacLeod said.

She said McGuinty has all but ignored Drummond's recommendations to either eliminate or phase in all-day kindergarten, end the option to go back to high school for a fifth year and eliminate class-size caps.
“Those are three big ticket items that come to almost $3 billion that Dalton has ignored,” MacLeod said.

When asked why he wouldn't tackle these issues, she said the government is “not prepared to make the tough decisions.”

At the same time, the province announced recently it's moving to amalgamate school boards, something which will only save $10 million a year, MacLeod said.

“I'd hate to see some large boards getting larger, all in the name of finding $10 million,” she said.

MacLeod was in Greater Sudbury June 18 to consult with members of the public about the province's education system. She's held similar consultation sessions in other cities throughout Ontario over the last few weeks.

She plans to take into consideration what she hears from the public, as well as Drummond's recommendations, and will write a white paper on how to build a more “efficient and effective” education system.

She plans to release the document this fall.

If there's one concern MacLeod has heard all across the province, it's that parents are unhappy with accommodation reviews — consultation processes which sometimes lead to school closures.

“I can hear in London, Kitchener, Ottawa, Peterborough, Sudbury and Niagara Falls all the same presentation — just change the name of the school,” she said.

“The thing is, there's an issue there. If I'm hearing it all the way across the province, then maybe we need to do something to tinker that to improve that process so parents feel they're being heard.”

MacLeod said she feels that communities would be able to save their local school if they were built as hubs. She brings up the example of a school in her riding, which is also the site of the local swimming pool, skating rink and library.

She also said she's heard a lot about the need to protect students from bullying, as well as issues with school boards not managing their financial resources properly.

“Smaller boards, like the ones in the north, aren't a problem (in terms of financial management),” MacLeod said. “It's the larger boards that are experiencing high growth that are having difficulty managing their pennies.”

MacLeod was accompanied at the local consultation session by Paula Peroni, a trustee with the Sudbury Catholic District School Board who also ran for the Progressive Conservatives in Nickel Belt in the last provincial election.

Peroni also sits on the advisory committee assisting MacLeod with her report.

“I think one of the biggest issues for us, not just here in Sudbury, but in northern Ontario, is the lack of flexibility in revenues that are given (to school boards) from the ministry,” she said.

“It does not allow us to respond appropriately to our constituents. Being very mindful of the scarcity of the dollars, that's very important. So when we have parents calling that would like to try new initiatives, when we have teachers that think outside the box, it's really hard to fund that exciting piece.”

She said education is being “micromanaged by Dalton McGuinty, and it's tiresome and it's burdensome.”

Peroni said she thought the Drummond report had a lot of good suggestions, and it's “somewhat of an insult” that the premier is “picking and choosing” which ones he wants to implement.

“I think we should better respect the Drummond report,” she said. “It's got a lot of good stuff in it that we need to be activating.”

Posted by Arron Pickard