Friday, September 26, 2014

Here's why we need to vote responsibly for trustees

Do you want to know part of what ails Catholic and public education in Ontario? All you have to do is read what a retired superintendent has expressed in a letter to a newspaper. The superintendent wants people to vote, but only if they agree with his views and those of the nanny state.  In his letter, sent to the Burlington Post retired Halton Catholic District School Board, superintendent Gary Mahoney laments the fact that school board trustees exercise their right to propose motions and stand for ideas that may contradict what the school board or the Ministry of Education are proposing from school year to school year. Well excuse us, Sir, this is democracy. Why bother to vote if your ideas are the only ones that count. With this view, we should all join the Liberal Party of Canada.

Let's look at some of the contents of the letter. On the one hand he states, "Ratepayers, regardless of their family status, pay taxes for school services. And, make no mistake about it, neglecting school board elections has significant results." But on the other hand he says, trustee candidates are "vulnerable to manipulation by those with particular and peculiar agendas to advance. With few hoops to jump through, any tax-paying resident of a municipality, however wacky their motivation, can qualify as a candidate." Surely then the solution isn't to appoint them so they can do the bidding of the school board or the Ministry of Education because they know what's best for children.   (more..)

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