Why We Are Protesting After many attempts to secure meaningful negotiations with the Government on Bill 160, it became obvious that the Harris Tories were not prepared to consider any meaningful changes to the Bill. As a consequence teachers were forced to leave their classrooms and commence action designed to persuade the Government that Ontario's Education is not up for grabs. They were not prepared to let a Minister of Education of this or any other Government make changes to such fundamental issues as class size, educational financing, length of school day and year amongst many others things, without even having to debate this in the House. Here in Victoria County as with the rest of the Province, teachers from Elementary, Secondary and the Seperate Board schools are united in their struggle to defeat this Bill.
Education is a partnership between parents,school boards and teachers.
Property taxes earmarked for education are spent within a framework arrived at by local contract bargaining between the boards and their trustees, and teachers and their unions. This system has stood the test of time and, and, with occasional exceptions, produces conditions and services in schools that work. Above all it is a system that is fair. Parents, through their elected representatives, are able to directly influence where their tax dollars go. With the introduction of School Councils, parents can further oversee that expenditure and input into a whole gamut of educational issues affecting the children of their community.