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v z j i r 4- snvwit weekender saturday november 1 1997 p5 msi the teachers of rkham district high schoo heres why transfer of power bill 160 takes all power away from voters and their school boards and gives it to mike harris and his minister of education all decisions will be made in private without public participation bill 160 says that orders from the government on educational issues are final and shall not be reviewed or questioned in any court control of funds the ontario government will have complete control over local funding our local school board will no longer be able to obtain the revenues needed for our students educational needs in the last 5 years ontarios ranking of per pupil expenditure in north america has fallen from 24th to 49th out of 63 provinces and states this is before the 700 million cut that is the goal of this government unqualified teachers bill 1 60 makes provisions for replacing many teacher positions with unqualified instructors a simple way to cut costs and destroy programs these people will not be trained in teaching methods curriculum implementation or class management these people will not be subject to the college of teachers standards and discipline threatened subjects include all of the arts physical education computer studies technical studies library and guidance there are no assurances that this list will not grow instructional prep time increasing teachers class time reducing prep time does not increase the amount of learning time for students as the government claims in fact reducing prep time will increase the number of students seen by a teacher since teachers will be teaching an extra class in the spring of 1996 teachers in york region were timetabled to teach an extra class in the new school year before this board initiative was reversed by the education relations commission markham lost 19 teachers the net effect of reducing our prep time was simply to increase the remaining teachers workload while laying off teachers with absolutely no improve ment to instructional time for students class sizes in the past it has been teachers who have continually negotiated for lower class sizes not the government do not be fooled by the figure commonly known as the ptr pupil teacher ratio when we started the year at markham our blended ptr includes principals viceprincipals librarians consultants guidance counsellors special education and special needs teachers as well as any other support teachers in the calculation was 161 this figure translated into an actual average class size of 34 students in grade 9 with numbers reaching as high as 42 we beleeve as teachers at markham district high school we truly believe in our system of public education that provides equal access and opportunity to all students the massive changes proposed by the harris government will certainly eliminate this equality it is with great difficulty and concern that we are participating in the provincewide political protest the harris government has left us with no other choice this protest is our only defence in the battle for the future of quality education in ontario schools without our protest this bill would be enacted with almost no public awareness or input we sincerely ask for your support your understanding and your voice please tell the harris government to scrap bill 160 and allow us to begin working together for a truly improved system for more information visit our website httpwwwinforampnetcsdbill160 n ss c j ms fop yasjuy cjl9a w fla4 ji- imxjl