Peace in education

[JBen]

Maybe it just me G, but I cannot recall a time in my life where a governing body did as much damage, real quantifiable damage to real people.

Normally regardless of the party in power, things really aren’t bad. You would have be blind deaf and dumb not to see what their rule has/is doing. Maybe you can sleep at night. Most can’t and Im also talking about some friends who are true red liberals and they are fizzed. You don’t get it G.

Would you like the name of the woman on FB, by all means I’ll let you tell her that.
And about “complaining"

Please explain if A) voter apathy is part of the problem how that is to be corrected if people listened to you and didn’t call spades spades. Im sure you might prefer that but…And B) I am unafraid to call spades spades, get people more interested, more aware, if you expect me to bite my tongue.

Not going to happen, thats part of the problem.

[terrym]

I think it's all an elaborate scam. The Teachers and the Liberals need each other and they both know it, they may have occasional lover's quarrels but will never divorce. I think Aunty Wynny needs cash bad right now and the money saved in strikes was a trade off for future gains by the unions. Better for them to give up a couple weeks of pay now to have a fatter pension when they retire at 53 yrs old. Nothing but booting the can down the road. The teachers "own" this government and they know it. She may have a majority now but knows without them she is out of a job next time without the teacher unions. Classic political maneuvering. Pick the big fights at the start of a mandate because the sheep have very short attention spans. My guess it is more about proper dating/expiration of the coming contracts to make them useful in the next election. The OPP will be looking for thier next raise soon so why do you think they are protecting her and dragging thier feet in the scandal/coverup investigations? They also need each other.

[JBen]

Have to disagree Terry.

I know teachers and many of them are POd. Without bringing up a lot of beaten to death things (spending, brain cramps, mad hiring/raises and on and on). No matter how it's sliced or diced.

Not only are real people (many of them not as fortunate as others) getting hammered with new taxes, fee's, rising cost of living (Hydro and more).......

Students now are paying the prices for their (Liberals and Unions decisions/actions) along with the working stiffs of Ontario. Yeah G, this battle if you will is in essence over, not having the money to be afford smaller class sizes, or.....So no matter how that's sliced or diced.
Thanks to them ( Ms Wynne/Unions) we can no longer afford the education we might want for our kids.....

/good job.

I suspect (suspicion only) Ms Wynne is actually playing hardball now/finally. She really has no choice. The ratings agencies are still watching closely...Shes raising every tax/fee she can, dreaming up new ones. She selling off Hydro 1.

Why are all these things needed? Because, of what they have done say from 2004 to 2014 and those who kept them there.
The public is growing sick and tired of it...

It would be an incredibly hard sell and the inevitable back lash that is growing (Anti Liberal, Anti Union sentiment) would explode, if after raising taxes, raiding our pockets even more to pay for it all, selling Hydro one

Next year, or the year after the Unions get small raises or any kind of love.
And don't forget, they haven't even really started on trying to eliminate the deficit............That still needs to come.

[mosquito]

Last I looked the Ontario debt payments were well over 50% of what the Education budget was.

[werner.reiche]

Last I looked the Ontario debt payments were well over 50% of what the Education budget was.

Close, but not quite. About 40% (10b interest vs 25b education). Health is about 50B. Social services is about 10B.
Those 4 items make up 95B of Ontario's 130B budget. The remaining items are 5B and under.

http://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/budget/o...papers_all.pdf

Quick summary is buried on page 289.

[JBen]

You and I seem to be the only ones that ever look at or link directly from www.fin.gov.ca.
Even debates about the needs for Pension reforms.....It's there to, despite all the rhetoric from those defending PS Pensions and the cost, even they know it needs to be done. But dare mention it....


Reading things from the Unions the past week, they are playing the expected cards.
"it's about the quality of education for our children"
"it's about class room sizes"

Ok, I can buy into that. I'm on side.
Whose fault is it we can't afford to provide for them? Cant afford classrooms with 20-25 students
The Liberals and the Unions.

[werner.reiche]

Not sure if its happening yet, but it will before the next provincial election - Wynne playing Bob Rae in a remake of the 1990s. Who gets to play Mike Harris in part II? Patrick Brown maybe? How harsh will the next mop-up be??? People that though Harris was harsh are in for a lot worse the next go around. But its what "we" the Ontario voters wanted, that's why we re-elected the liberals.

[werner.reiche]

When you compare teachers (average salary 83,500) with nurses (average salary 64,100) and factor in that teachers get two months off in the summer, two weeks at Christmas, and a week at March break, straight 9-5 days, no weekends, straight days, no evening or night shifts, you really have to wonder how that happened.

And before you start comparing the number of nurses vs teachers on the sunshine lists, in the high skilled nursing positions (emerg, icu), there is an endless demand for nurses to fill OT shifts because hospitals do not staff enough full time positions to do the work required. The sunshine nurses make the list by working crazy amounts of OT.

[JBen]

And why cant we afford more nurses?

[terrym]

We can rant and point out all that is wrong but the fix is in. Until we hit the wall and hit it hard the Unions and Liberals will rule. At some point she won't be able to borrow any more and will have taxed everything under the sun and including it too. Canadians or rather this generation want instant gratification and demand a standard of living that they are perfectly comfortable mortgaging their kids for.
Alberta has been living above it's means for years and when a government told them they had hit the credit limit they turfed them for an NDP alternative. You can imagine the millions of social clingons in that Province lining up at the liquor stores to buy champagne this morning. They just hit the jackpot. Like children they threw a tantrum when told they couldn't have another cookie. It's their children who will pay down the road.