For quite some time now I have been
ruminating about the cost of child benefits, including education. Of course,
few people have been listening because they are either the beneficiaries of what I call
the “baby industry,” or because I am merely a single taxpayer who isn’t.
However, now the prestigious Fraser Institute
has come out with a report that confirms many of the things I have been
saying. In particular:
1.
The cost
of education has risen substantially, despite declining enrolments and
diminishing results, and
2.
Schools
are being turned into glorified daycare centres.
Attached are excerpts taken from an editorial appearing in the Toronto Sun
Newspaper Sunday, October 5. 2014. To read the full story, to: http://www.torontosun.com/2014/10/04/kathleen-wynnes-math-doesnt-add-up
|
We’re paying more for public education in
Ontario these days and getting less.
As the Fraser Institute reported last week, in the decade from 2001 to 2011, public
spending on education in Ontario rose by 61%, from $15.2 billion to $24.5
billion annually.
Meanwhile, student enrollment dropped 5.1%,
from 2.16 million to 2.05 million.
Of course, higher teacher salaries account for
part of this increase, along with inflation.
But that raises the issue of whether taxpayers
are getting good value for money.
For the fifth year in a row, testing by
Ontario’s Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) showed math scores
in decline among elementary students in Grade 3 and 6.
In Grade 3, only 67% of students met the
provincial standard in math in 2014, a four-percentage-point drop from 71% in
2010.
In Grade 6, only 54% of students met the
provincial standard in math in 2014, a seven-percentage- point drop from 61% in
2010.
In applied math, only 47% of Grade 9 students
met the provincial standard, a figure the EQAO described as worrisome, even though it’s up from 40% five years ago.
Instead
of dealing with these problems, Ontario’s Liberal government, first under
Dalton McGuinty and now under Kathleen Wynne, has poured billions of tax
dollars into turning schools into
glorified daycare centres, through its ruinously expensive all-day kindergarten
program.
This may be good enough for government work,
but it’s not good enough for the real world.
The problem is the person ultimately in charge
of the system is Wynne, a former left-wing trustee with the spendthrift Toronto
school board.
So hold on to your wallets, Ontario, because
sadly, there’s no relief in site.
Click on the logo to learn more
No comments:
Post a Comment