Public system secondary teachers say first budget "critical"

Secondary school teachers from the Near North District School Board say the Ontario Liberal government's first budget will be a critical part in rebuilding public school education.

Further details are included in the following news release issued today at 11 a.m. by the Ontario Secondary School Teacher's Federation:
____________________________________________________________

OSSTF challenges government to move forward on Rozanski recommendations in its first budget

(North Bay) – Provincial OSSTF President, Rhonda Kimberley-Young was one-hundred percent correct yesterday when she told the government’s pre-budget hearings in Toronto, “Nothing this government has said before or since the October 2nd election will speak with as much eloquence about its priorities as this first budget,” according to local OSSTF President, Keith Pacey.
“It is time to start the rebuilding process for public education and the government’s first budget is a critical part of this process,” Pacey said. “Our public education system desperately needs the benchmark and inflation portions of the funding formula upgraded to reflect 2004 values,” stated Pacey.
In its presentation to the hearings, OSSTF cautioned the government not to continue to focus blame on the inherited deficit for failing to implement its own vision of change. “Too much focus on the deficit will only be extending the previous government’s vision for Ontario – a vision that the people of Ontario threw out on October 2,” Pacey stated.
The OSSTF brief challenges the newly elected government to remove the fiscal handcuffs put on it by the previous government by repealing The Balanced Budget Act and the Taxpayers Protection Act. Kimberley-Young accused the previous government of “shackling future governments to their narrow vision for our society. Why should any government be held hostage to ideologically driven measures from one particular point of view”?
“Free yourself to govern in the best interests of all Ontarians,” challenged OSSTF.
The OSSTF submission urges the government: to reinvest in public education in accordance with the funding recommendations of Dr. Rozanski; to put in place the structural changes to the education funding formula that are consistent with Dr. Rozanski’s recommendations; to fund school boards to allow them to meet their obligations in implementing fully the Pay Equity Act; to dedicate funding for school support staff to ensure adequate levels of staffing in schools in the areas of office, clerical, technical and plant support needs.
“Premier McGuinty has made it clear that he wants to be known as the ‘education premier’. How he chooses to address the current education funding deficit will determine if he is serious about earning that title,” concluded Pacey.
The complete OSSTF submission to pre-budget consultation hearings can be viewed on the OSSTF website at www.osstf.on.ca.