Getting warm up north

NEA Today, Oct 1998

It's education reform in reverse. In Canada, the Ontario provincial government has increased teacher time in the classroom by 25 percent by slashing prep time and ditched negotiated class size caps in favor of districtwide "averages."

It gets worse. Under Bill 160, Ontario's Conservative government has stripped school boards of most powers, confined per-pupil funding to ultra-narrow "classroom expenditures," and scrapped teachers' right to bargain over working conditions.

As the new school year began, many of the province's K-12 teachers faced unilateral changes in their terms and conditions of employment-even new, "first" contracts.

That's why as early as last June, educators in 31 of Ontario's 72 districts had authorized fall strikes.

Not an idle threat. Last autumn, 126,000 members of five unions affiliated with the Ontario Teachers' Federation protested Bill 160 with a 10-day walkout. For updates, go to www.osstf.on.ca/.