An article in todays "tabloids" really got me thinking. The article was about the Afrocentric School in Toronto having only 6 children and 3 teachers. The article claims that the cost of running this program so far is $75,000 (Toronto Sun).
So what would be the yearly cost? Since all teachers make "$90,000" a year the cost to run the program would be $270,000 in teacher salaries alone. Then considering that teachers take up 47.3 percent of the education budget we can conclude that the actual cost of this program would be:
47.3 % of (unknown costs) = 270,000
Therefore the actual cost of running this program is $570824.52 or about $95137 per kid.
Putting aside any anti-teacher arguments for a moment, suppose you are an accountant for a private company.
One day, the boss calls a staff meeting and informs his employees (and you) that there will be a significant reduction in wages, benefits and pensions, plus he is going to force you to work three days a year for free.
He pleads with all of you to make these sacrifices for the "good of the company" which is in a serious financial crisis.
But you as the accountant know that the company has been frivolously spending an amount greater than the aforementioned cuts on expenses that are not required for the well-being of the company.
So you go and seek out your boss.
You tell him that you have ways to reduce company waste while at the same time maintaining the status quo in terms of wages and benefits. No increases. Just the status quo.
The response from your boss is to refuse to even hear your proposal, and legislate that you can no longer discuss issues of employee wages and benefits for the next 4 years.
Would you not be angry?
We know from the current NHL lockout that even individuals who make upwards of eight million a year still complain about cutbacks. They say that if the league reduced the waste (Phoenix Coyotes, Florida Panthers etc.) then there would be no need to "cut back."
But teachers are somehow different?
They are not supposed to complain?
In this situation, yes we should always complain when management takes away from employees because of their "wasteful" practices.
So the question becomes, what evidence exists in Ontario Education of waste?
Can we come up with a total that is greater than what is being cut from teachers?
Why don't my viewers get us started.. let the comments roll.
FULL DAY KINDERGARTEN!!!
ReplyDeleteThe unstandardized, invalid EQAO testing. Bam.
ReplyDeleteThe huge amount of waste for products in the schools that get replaced because they go off warranty!!!!
ReplyDeleteThe number of products that are replaced because they go off warranty!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat about the millions spent on the ONTARIO TEACHER QUALIFYING TEST (OTQT) that the government quickly scrapped once they realized it held no validity?
ReplyDeleteFull day kindergarten! The biggest waste of them all.
ReplyDeleteRather than building a strong child care system in Ontario the government spent oodles on full day kindergarten that requires parents to spend nearly as much in before and after school as before and ensures that their 4 year-old children are warehoused in classes that are 40 children big. That's FORTY four year-olds in a single room.
As a new parent I can unequivocally say that full day kindergarten was and is a bad idea. Children don't need to be in school at FOUR YEARS OLD!
The research shows that only those children coming from very low SES (socioeconomic) backgrounds benefit from full day kindergarten.
Otherwise the monies are being wasted.
Why are we spending hundreds of millions, if not billions on middle and high SES children when there's no bang for our collective buck there?
Full day kindergarten! The biggest waste of them all.
ReplyDeleteRather than building a strong child care system in Ontario the government spent oodles on full day kindergarten that requires parents to spend nearly as much in before and after school as before and ensures that their 4 year-old children are warehoused in classes that are 40 children big. That's FORTY four year-olds in a single room.
As a new parent I can unequivocally say that full day kindergarten was and is a bad idea. Children don't need to be in school at FOUR YEARS OLD!
The research shows that only those children coming from very low SES (socioeconomic) backgrounds benefit from full day kindergarten.
Otherwise the monies are being wasted.
Why are we spending hundreds of millions, if not billions on middle and high SES children when there's no bang for our collective buck there?
Full day kindergarten!
ReplyDeleteEven research by proponents shows that full day kindergarten only benefits children from low SES backgrounds.
We provide full day kindergarten for everyone when we should really be focussing our efforts on the children that need it.
Why are we squandering 100s of millions of dollars annually warehousing children from mid and high SES backgrounds at AGE FOUR in classrooms which have 40 children in them??? Can't we make better use of Ontario's collective buck than that?
What about getting all the teachers who should have retired years ago to retire, replacing them with brand new teachers (who DON'T make $90,000 a year)?
ReplyDeleteI'd retire tomorrow if I could. I'm stressed & tired, but not of the kids - they're amazing & I love teaching. Tired of dealing with the idiocracy of consultants & special assignment portfolio experts etc etc. And I do, in fact, want to make room for younger teachers who I see being strung along by endless LTO cycles. I WANT to help them... I'm not near the 90 or 85 factors, though, so unless a special incentive was offered, nothing I can do about it. They really ought to consider a stimulus for late-career types... We'd jump at the chance in today's climate.
ReplyDelete