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f4mjrwesbkvimr st the tribune tuesday november 11 1997 vol 109 no 73 comment 0 mons send your letters to the editor to the address below editorial remember sacrifice made by veterans now that the dust from yesterdays municipal election is settling its time to think of the men and women who fought to give us the freedom to vote in the first place today is one of the most important days of the year in the lives of canadian veterans who fought in both world wars and other global conflicts the familiar red poppies blooming on everyones jackets and coats remind us all that remembrance day is a time to remember the sacrifice of soldiers too many of whom arent alive today to thank personally yet the youngest generation doesnt know the significance of either poppies or remembrance day and indeed has no real con cept of world war that is their luck and our responsibility canadian veterans fought in ratinfested trenches desert sands and sweltering jungles to save the world from dictatorship geno cide inhumanity and racism that canadian children today enjoy peace and freedom and have no personal knowledge of war is a credit to those veterans we can say a quiet thank you to both the living and the dead dur ing the obligatory moment of silence at 1 1 am today we can also participate in solemn observances at local cemeteries and war memorials but theres something else we have a responsibility to do this remembrance day explain to our children and grandchildren why they too should be grateful and respectful of veterans sacrifice 7ruireelep f7 maybe separate board teachers need miracle dear editor for the past several years i have been fascinated by the ads which are repeated week after week under the heading personal prayer to the holy spirit or st judes nove- na letters without one or more people attest ing to a miracle this week mm acknowledges there is rarely a week goes by a miracle and provides a threestep formula which is guaranteed to work no matter how difficult your wish may be in addition ed provides a 9- step formula for answered pages which has never been known to fail never now this is clearly superior to aladdins lamp since there is no limit on the number of wishes is this the solution for the york catholic teachers grievances with their board see their ad on page 1 2 of the same paper blake tufford stouffville mpp clarifies government position on bill 1 60 dear editor 1 am deeply dismayed that teachers and students have been out of their classrooms over bill 160 i have read the messages letters and email for warded by constituents i have met with individual teachers and federation representatives and i am well aware of the concerns that have been raised now that the government has tabled its amendments i welcome this oppor tunity to clarify my position and respond to the issues teachers have told me they have too many students in classes not enough textbooks and inadequate assistance in classrooms to teach integrated students with special needs theres no question teachers are being honest but consider this two years ago no one disagreed that too much money was being spent in the board offices editors note in a letter published in the tri bunes oct 23 issue under the head line reader defends sdss coach and dad the name was withheld by mistake the writerwas sarah connell who had wanted her name published with the letter the editor apologizes for the error while classrooms were neglected although the government has per sistently asked school boards to make the classroom a priority 1 ask you what has changed since 1995 has the gap between the luxuries of the board offices and the deficien cies of the classroom narrowed since the provincial government cut fund ing by three per cent in 1996 the answer is no teachers and stu dents have not been placed first on the agenda locally as a teacher who sought election to make positive changes in the education system i believe this must be reversed in addition to 60 per cent of your municipal taxes that go to school boards the province kicks in 45 billion without any control over how that money is spent locally its not in the best interests of teachers and students and it should not be allowed to continue if an elected provincial government which holds constitutional responsi bility for education does not require school boards to spend your money in the classroom who will there has been a lot of media dis cussion about who will control edu cation the unions or the govern ment it is true that bill 160 would give the government the authority to implement previouslylegislated re forms including school board amal gamation and allow the province to set education taxes but on the eve of the strike minis ter johnson indicated the important issue for the government is not who controls education but what stan dards we are going to adhere to the public has objected to the reg ulation of class size prep time and noncertified teachers by cabinet decree to increase the accountability of this legislation the minister has significantly clarified it and dropped parts of the bill that would have allowed changes to these standards without public debate the amended legislation stipulates that the average class size in each board cannot exceed 25 in elemen tary schools and 22 in high schools special education classes and non- teaching staff would not be included in the class average equation johnson has also changed language in the bill that would have allowed teachers to be replaced by nonteach ers any changes to these standards would require full legislative debate i support these standards because they will enrich the experience of students in our schools these amendments have largely satisfied the demands of union lead ers and teachers the outstanding issue is high school prep time on this i agree with constituents that both sides must compromise the education system cannot be enhanced unless there are enough teachers to meet the needs of students if reductions in prep time really mean more time with students the government must ensure that the level of education funding does not jeopardize teaching staff this is the position i am advocating with my caucus colleagues julia munro mpp durham- york t ki 4 f 4 i 4- t congratulations teachers dear editor i want to congratulate the teachers of ontario im not sure how it was done but they were completely successful in pulling down the mask of the government to expose the nasty tyrants masquerading as a popular party this was the turning point for the harris government greg keilty cedar valley stouffville tribune a metroland community newspaper patricia pappas publisher andrew mair editorinchief tracy kibble editor debra weller director of advertising mike rogerson retail advertising manager stacey allen classified manager barry goodyear director of distribution vivian oneil business manager pamela nichols operations manager about us news 905 momoo retail sales 9056402100 classifieidls s 9056402874 distributio 905 6405477 thetribistarca stouffville ont l4a1e2 the stouffville tribune pub lished every tuesday thursday and saturday us one of the metroland printing publishing and distribution group of commu- nity newspapers which includes ajaxpickcring news advertiser is alliston heraldcourier barrle advance brampton guardian burlington post cityparent cpllingwoodrtvasaga beach con nection east york mirror etobi- coke guardian georgetown inde pendentacton free press kingston this week lindsay this week markham economist sun midlandpenctanguishcnc mirror milton canadian champion mis- sisssuga news newmarketaurora erabanner northumberland news north york mirror oakvillo beaver orillia today gshawa- whilbyclaringtonport perry this week peterborough this week nichmond huvthornhiuvaughan liberal scarborough mirror and uxbrtdgo tribune todays seniors contents cannot be reprinted with- out written permission from the publisher permit 11m7 tho pub- iisher roscrves the right to 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