Education - Another broken promise

The Liberal War Room's clever manipulation of the media to remain focussed on the Faith-Based funding brouhaha has detracted from the real issue - How well are our public schools performing?

Some advocates for improving the quality of education in the Ontario public school system want to redirect attention back to performance, and to the latest release of provincial tests showing that another key 2003 election promise by Dalton McGuinty has been broken - specifically, that they would get "75% of all Grade 6 students meeting or exceeding the standard in provincial reading, writing and math tests by the end of their first mandate."


In press release by the Society for Quality Education, Doretta Wilson states:

The Society for Quality Education (SQE) is not surprised that Ontario students did not come close to meeting the 75% target set out by the province. With only 64% of the province’s grade 6 students passing their reading test, an average class of 25 students would yield only 16 students who can read well enough for the work of the next grade. The results are even worse in writing, with only 61% of students passing, and math, with only 59% of students passing – down 2% from last year.

“Generous increases to the amount of taxpayers’ money spent on various initiatives haven’t translated into improvement,” said Doretta Wilson, executive director. “Test results have flat-lined compared to last year and, in some cases, the results are actually worse.”

Once again we find that the Liberal ploys of appeasing unions and throwing money at a problem do not necessarily lead to positive results.

There is even some controversy surrounding the possibility that these standardized tests have been "dumbed-down" in an attempt to improve the results and thereby make the current Liberal government appear successful.


As one of my readers recently commented, instead of being known as the Education Premier, we should start referring to Dalton the "Teachers' Union Premier".


Because as Sandy so aptly notes:

Yes, while Dalton McGuinty was breaking his promises to the people of Ontario, he was keeping them to the teachers’ unions.

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Related - Check out a few more reasons why you shouldn't vote Liberal (if you really need them):

Officially Screwed - Trade-offs. I will take Tory's Faith-Based Funding over the Liberal's Lawyer and Crony Based Funding Anyday.

Joan Tintor - McGuinty loses debate: Ads go more negative.

Steve Janke - From the Ontario Liberals to the ALF-CIO to the Working Families Coalition.

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Sunday Update: Another reason not to vote for McGuinty - Heartbreaking story about an Ottawa cancer patient via Step to the Right.

Toronto Star's Christina Blizzard - Dalton Stumbles, Bumbles Along.

Interesting mention about Working Families in Blizzard's column:

Trust me, the Liberals know all about attack ads. Remember the "Not this time, Ernie" campaign the so-called "Working Families" coalition ran in 2003? Sure, the party claimed not to be involved, apart from sharing their desire to defeat the Tories.

The series of TV and billboard ads portrayed former premier Eves in a very derogatory light. Talk about demonizing him. They were close-up, black-and-white pictures that showed every pore of his skin and portrayed the guy as some kind of lounge lizard.

And while Working Families is a largely union-led coalition, the person behind those ads was Marcel Wieder, a well-known Liberal "dirty ops" specialist.

So please, let's have no Liberal finger-wagging on negativity

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Tuesday Update: Good site here on Catholic Education - Tomorrows Trust. Lots of great links.