Teacher War

EDITORIAL

Ontario Premier Doug Ford says the province's teachers are at war with his government, not vice versa.

And we tend to agree with him.

The teachers claimed last week that the student walkout was a protest organized by the students themselves, which is bit of a stretch considering the politically-astute signs many were carrying and the socialist rhetoric they were chanting.

What's the teachers' beef? 

We suspect it is more the concern of their unions, and the subsequent loss of all those dues, when the Ford government said it planned to eliminate 3,475 teaching positions—not by forced layoffs, mind you, but by not replacing teachers who either quit, take voluntary buyouts, or retire.

If there is a protest, it should be students protesting the fact that the teachers who teach math should actually learn how to do math, because our students are terrible at it, and have gone through a decade of failing standard exams.

Is that the students' fault? Not a chance. It's the fault of teachers who teach the courses.

As for numbers, the province of Ontario has added 13,000 teachers, and 9,000 ECE workers, over the last 15 years, all while enrolment has fallen by 109,000 students.

Inching up the class size certainly won't be a killer because Ontario already has one of the best teacher-student ratios in the entire country.

So, the teachers have little complaint there.

Another big complaint coming from the students, but actually coming from the teachers, is that the Ford government wants every student to take at least one online course a year.

Today's students virtually live online. It's more their home than their actual home.

So, what's the issue?

The answer: There is none.

But here's a quiz. When was the last time the teachers and/or the teacher unions had no complaints with the provincial government of the day?

It might have been when Bill Davis was Premier.

But you'd have to be pretty old to remember it.