{"id":35754,"date":"2020-08-18T13:30:28","date_gmt":"2020-08-18T17:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/?p=35754"},"modified":"2020-08-24T13:33:35","modified_gmt":"2020-08-24T17:33:35","slug":"news-from-the-park-investing-in-our-schools-invests-in-the-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/2020\/08\/18\/news-from-the-park-investing-in-our-schools-invests-in-the-future\/","title":{"rendered":"News from the Park – Investing in Our Schools invests in the Future"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"They say the olfactory senses can bring about some of the strongest emotions and memories in people.\u00a0 Like when you walk into a room and a particular scent such as baking cookies or a certain potpourri brings back powerful memories of your grandma.\u00a0 For me this week, a simple calendar evoked strong memories.\u00a0 I just couldn\u2019t believe my eyes when I noted the date. \u00a0An old familiar feeling back from my childhood suddenly came over me. \u00a0At this time of year each summer the sudden realization that the day after Labour Day is just around the corner would cause a kind of a panic in me to cram as much summer fun as possible into the remaining days.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t to say I didn\u2019t like school, but rather that I just liked my summer freedom more.\u00a0 My summers are, and always have, felt far too short.<\/p>\n

Now, in my role as MPP, I\u2019m experiencing similar feelings but with a totally different perspective and sense of urgency, brought about by the pandemic.\u00a0 So many people say they are distressed about the safety of children and teachers going back to school this fall. \u00a0Unfortunately this stress in not only felt by parents but is also being expressed by younger children and secondary school youth.\u00a0 Parents, students, teachers, support staff and even school bus drivers are not convinced that Doug Ford\u2019s plan to send kids back into classroom and onto busses without any true possibility of social distancing is wise or even remotely safe in some cases. To be sure, the people of Ontario have made these concerns abundantly clear for weeks now through petitions, letters and protests.\u00a0 You know it has to be a genuine concern when teachers, support staff and bus drivers are seriously contemplating resigning from their jobs because of fear for their own health and safety in the workplace.\u00a0 Even parents are considering quitting their jobs and swallowing the disadvantages of online learning so they can keep their children out of crowded classes.<\/p>\n

Ford and Education Minister Lecce have been pounding the podium declaring there is nothing more important than protecting our children and they will do whatever it takes to keep them safe and healthy.\u00a0 But in truth it seems they mean they will do anything \u2013 except<\/em><\/strong> provide the funding needed.<\/p>\n

Parents and teachers have said all along that the only safe way for students to go back to school is to reduce class sizes by opening closed rooms or buildings and repurposing other appropriate spaces into classrooms.\u00a0 Public health authorities have now confirmed the worries of students, parents, teachers and education workers about Doug Ford\u2019s risky, crowded back-to-school scheme.\u00a0 They have made it have clear that giving kids the room to physically distance in the classroom is the best defense against outbreaks hurting our little ones, and spreading into the community.\u00a0 More teachers are needed to make this happen.<\/p>\n

Ford and Lecce outright refuse to reconsider their plans and insist on sending kids back into classes that were already jam-packed before the pandemic.\u00a0 At best they feign such consideration, using slight-of-hand tactics to make people think they are giving in to demands.<\/p>\n

There are no real plans<\/em><\/strong> to increase funding to boards to hire more teachers despite the sales job by Lecce.\u00a0 After weeks of being hammered by worried parents and teachers, Lecce did announce the government would provide money to increase staff.\u00a0 But the final total amount was not even a joke.\u00a0 When you divide the total increase by the number of schools in the province, it works out to a pathetic $16,000 per school. \u00a0That is not even enough to hire one teacher for the year.\u00a0 So much for breaking classes up into smaller, safer groups.<\/p>\n

Once it was clear the public had caught onto Lecce\u2019s ploy, the Government tried further slight-of-hand by announcing the Ministry of Education would allow special one time access to school board reserves to help cover the costs of hiring more teachers. \u00a0First of all, this is assuming that every board has \u201creserve\u201d funding.\u00a0 Reserve funding is money that some boards had put aside from many years back for helping to cover unexpected or \u201crainy-day\u201d expenses and needs.\u00a0 For example, when boards don\u2019t have sufficient funding to cover special needs expenses, they can turn to such funds.\u00a0 But once the account is gone, it will never be replenished.\u00a0 The thing is, however, not every board has reserve funding.\u00a0 So the truth of the matter is that the Province is not actually handing over $500 million.\u00a0 They are just allowing those boards that do have their own money to spend some.<\/p>\n

Health officials also highly recommend ensuring there is adequate ventilation to keep fresh air circulating in the classes.\u00a0 But we all know that many schools do not have such circulation systems.\u00a0 Many thousands of class rooms have windows that don\u2019t open at all or perhaps a couple small ones that open just a crack.\u00a0 Once again, Doug Ford claims to have come to the rescue by providing up to $50 million for repair, improvement or installation of ventilation systems.\u00a0 So, how much will this mean per school given that there are over 4500 schools in the province? A single ventilation system could cost well over $100 thousand.\u00a0 Providing $50 million is like throwing a glass of water on a burning barn.<\/p>\n

The good news, however, that it is not too late.<\/p>\n

New Democrats have been proposing capping class sizes for all students, and hustling to get temporary classroom spaces, teachers and education workers lined up for all those classes.\u00a0 Ensuring every classroom has proper ventilation would be among the highest priorities.\u00a0 We would undertake reparations that governments have ignored for years \u2013 using money that would have been available through the cap-and-trade system that Doug Ford gave up when first elected.\u00a0 That money had been earmarked for school repairs.\u00a0 Under an NDP plan, Ontario schools would be welcoming all students back to school five days a week \u2013 but in smaller, safer classes.<\/p>\n

Ontario, like every province in Canada, is facing hard days ahead for economic recovery.\u00a0 Expenditures on our children\u2019s education and making our schools safe is clearly an outstanding investment in the health and safety of children. \u00a0It\u2019s an investment in parents getting back to work. \u00a0And it\u2019s an investment in getting our economy moving again.<\/p>\n

As always, please feel free to contact my office about these issues, or any other provincial matters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

They say the olfactory senses can bring about some of the strongest emotions and memories in people.\u00a0 Like when you walk into a room and a particular scent such as …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":4519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,85],"tags":[138],"class_list":["post-35754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","category-politics","tag-michael-mantha"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 07:58:32","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35754"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35755,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35754\/revisions\/35755"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wawa-news.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}