They may not be able to UNDO the damage.

As a retired educator, I am personally not as impacted by the continuing political strife between the government and education workers, but that doesn't mean that I don't care. I have actively stayed up to date with the lack of progress in the collective bargaining process and, every now and again, I come across people who share some pretty well worded thoughts. The following is one of those times. Mr Howard is a teacher in Ontario and since I don't personally know him, I cannot ask permission to share his thoughts so should he read this post, I hope that he is okay with me sharing. He did post this on line so I am assuming he'd be agreeable.

Dear Mr. Ford and Mr. Lecce,
I am writing to you again, this time to express my deep disappointment in the manner in which you have both chosen to disrespect all educators across the province. You have repeatedly called members of our dedicated profession "greedy", "selfish", and numerous other derogatory terms. You have chosen to suggest our profession has somehow been over paid for over 50 years. You have suggested our jobs are easy and privileged. You have suggested teachers don't understand what hard work is. You have chosen to "negotiate" in public. Quite frankly, I am disgusted by the divisive, sexist, and irresponsible rhetoric you publicly present on an almost daily basis.

Neither of you have any expertise in the field of education yet you repeatedly demonize teachers while purporting to know what is best for children and parents in our education system. You can not fathom the sacrifices that are made by educators on a daily basis. We sacrifice our pay cheques as we subsidize resources in schools for teaching the curriculum. We sacrifice our paycheques to subsidize for children struggling coming from lower socioeconomic situations. We sacrifice our paycheques to pay for fun activities, birthday treats, and basic reward celebrations for our students. We sacrifice our time from our own families before work and after work and yes even on weekends to support student learning and extracurricular activities. We sacrifice our own mental health as we struggle to support kids with addiction issues, mental health problems, physical health problems, children of abuse, children who have lost parents, children exhibiting suicidal behaviours, etc. We do this because we want what is best for Ontario's kids.

Teachers pay out of their own pockets every year to put bandaids on funding problems in our schools that come from a never ending struggle to meet the needs of diverse learners, increasingly scarce resources, increasing demands as educational structure has downloaded more responsibilities on the classroom teacher, increasing numbers of ESL students, increasing numbers of special needs students, increasing numbers of IEP students, increasing numbers of accommodated students, and increasing behavioural issues in schools stemming from everything from difficult homes, changing family expectations, to a lack of consistent discipline structure from administration.

Mr. Ford and Mr. Lecce, you are both forever damaging not only the relationship between educators and the Conservative Party but the very fabric of the professional relationship between the Ministry of Education, Boards, OPSBA, Trustees, teachers, parents, students, and all education support staff. You have put partisan politics ahead of sound educational research, expertise, and the collective knowledge of an entire profession about what is best for kids. Playing partisan politics may be acceptable and expected in Queens Park but it is not ok to play partisan politics with my kids, my students, or my professional future.

If you honestly believe the current teacher action is simply about a difference of 1% in salary and benefits you are gravely mistaken. Your proposed cuts are the straw that broke the camel's back.

You have an opportunity to truly discuss avenues for finding system efficiencies that are long overdue and you are squandering it. You have an opportunity to put together a team of public education experts and find solutions to the concerns of teachers, students, parents, and tax payers but because of partisan politics you are choosing not to. You could create an environment for intelligent policy debate and research driven bipartisan solutions but instead you are choosing damaging rhetoric.

There are systemic structural opportunities for savings in the $billions annually in Ontario. If only Ontario had the leadership to look for longterm solutions.

Please stop the destructive path we are on. Bargain in good faith or turn to binding arbitration provided for under current legislation. Ontario needs education leadership not partisan rhetoric.

Steven Howard OCT,
Bachelor of Education
Honours B.A. Economics, Environmental Economics Specialization, Legal Studies Option, Reading Specialist P/J, Math 1 P/J,
ABQ HPE Intermediate