Bill 177 enters second reading this week - what will it mean?

[Norah Fountain]

Hi, this piece from rabble.ca is right to the point of what Bill 177 could do.

Democracy Deleated with Bill 177 October 5, 2009 - 2:22am
This week Bill 177 entered it's second reading. For those who haven't heard of Bill 177 it is an act to amend the Education Act. The amendments are as follows:

* Trustees and educators will be responsible for enhancing student "achievement". Not only is achievement an arbitrary statement that educators will have difficulty interpreting, it completely rewrites the job description of our trustees and educators. Their focus will be on test scores and credit accumulation rates rather than their previous mandate of education and learning (more individualized approaches).
* Bill 177 severely undermines trustees' ability to advocate on behalf of student, parent and community interests. The bill proposes that "a member of a board shall support the implementation of any board resolution after it is passed". Further, if a trustee can be sanctioned if he/she continues to advocate for constituent's interests after the board disapproves.
* Trustees will lose the ability to oversee the work of their employees. Bill 177 states that trustees will "refrain from interfering in the day to day management of the board by its officers and staff". Consequently, the staff really don't have to worry about being held accountable.
* the Director becomes the boss. The director, who is not an elected official, is able to file adverse reports on the trustee AT WILL. The evaluation of the trustee will no longer be in the hands of electorate. Voters are essentially being silenced.

OSSTF, Elementary School Teachers, School Board Trustees and parents from across the province are calling for public consultations into these amendments because they have such a significant impact on the focus of education, the powers of democratically elected officials, and the participation and voice of the electorate.
Link: http://www.rabble.ca/babble/central-canada/democracy-deleated-bill-...

[Tanya Weiner]

I don't think it can mean anything good! I've popped an email to my MPP for her thoughts.

[Norah Fountain]

That's what all parents should be doing. Most MPPs think this is a simple change to update the Ed Act, to strike out outdated items. They don't realize the full impact as the ministry is downplaying the 'additional regs' they added on to the Bill over the summer.

[Cathy]

I do believe that this topic has been raised here before, a few months ago. There was much discussion then that I'm betting hasn't changed.

What Bill 177 does is further erode the role of trustees, BUT makes them responsible for student achievement...effectively giving the government a way out of being responsible for that.

The eroding of trustees has, in my opinion been going on for the last dozen years. If you've paid attention to the method of decision making at board meetings and the amount of already prescribed direction comes from government, you'll know that there is very little local community control of education any more. It started being top-down under Harris and has morphed into a monster under the current government.

Sadly in most community the elected trustees could be nixed tomorrow and few would bat an eyelash. Folks have turned off school boards in a big way. So much so in my area that no one runs for trustee any more.

None of this is new Norah. It's been happening for a long, long time and right under the noses of the trustees and school communities. Some tried to warn us as early on as the 1990s. Rather than board director and admin. being employees of the elected trustees and community this has flipped totally around so now the reverse is the norm.

I get really annoyed that in my area we rarely hear our trustee give comment or speak to media. It's always a board spokesperson. Trustees should have access to the schools, the parents and the media.

Rumour has it that because of the ballooning costs of school boards that the current government may consider to do with school board what they did with healthcare and develop regional LHINS.

Consultations will not help this.

[Norah Fountain]

Yes, the LHIN model is a possibility. That means certain individual will be selected to sit on boards in potentially even larger regions and we will hear even less from them. Even now, only the 'chair' is supposed to speak to the media on critical issues -- of course what is critical is not defined. And where we are, the local media find a lack of communication is the norm. As their former local Trustee, they would come to me and I would comment -- always noting they should speak to the chair. It made sense after all - their readers were those who had voted for me, not for someone a few hundred miles away. But when I spoke up on things like GST being taxed on schools, I was harassed by my board and director, who demanded to know if 'i was using board letterheard'. Of course not. And the board had agreed that this was an issue we were all agreed on. Now the ministry is legislating that type of behaviour. As it was, I had to hire a lawyer to stop my board from making me sign a ridiculous statement about breach of public trust -- simply because I asked three questions at an OBSPA meeting. Even though I'm no longer a trustee, i worry about parent access to the people making decisions for their children. I still have parents calling me asking me for some direction on how to get through to someone who might be able to help. As you say, some communities won't bat an eyelash. But when they go to ask questions, be given a long distance number (if they get even that) and be told to take 'it up with the boss'...they'll discover they have no one truly in their corner. I think so many parents are fortunate that their children don't have issues in school -- it's the ones that do that need a personal advocate. On another note, whatever happened to the Provincial Parent Board? I understand they were muzzled pretty quickly as well - have heard nothing since those 25 people were appointed. I'm all for finding ways to increase student achievement and accountability. I think this latest bill works to result in exactly the opposite.Sorry, I'm ranting.

Cathy said:

I do believe that this topic has been raised here before, a few months ago. There was much discussion then that I'm betting hasn't changed.

What Bill 177 does is further erode the role of trustees, BUT makes them responsible for student achievement...effectively giving the government a way out of being responsible for that.

The eroding of trustees has, in my opinion been going on for the last dozen years. If you've paid attention to the method of decision making at board meetings and the amount of already prescribed direction comes from government, you'll know that there is very little local community control of education any more. It started being top-down under Harris and has morphed into a monster under the current government.

Sadly in most community the elected trustees could be nixed tomorrow and few would bat an eyelash. Folks have turned off school boards in a big way. So much so in my area that no one runs for trustee any more.

None of this is new Norah. It's been happening for a long, long time and right under the noses of the trustees and school communities. Some tried to warn us as early on as the 1990s. Rather than board director and admin. being employees of the elected trustees and community this has flipped totally around so now the reverse is the norm.

I get really annoyed that in my area we rarely hear our trustee give comment or speak to media. It's always a board spokesperson. Trustees should have access to the schools, the parents and the media.

Rumour has it that because of the ballooning costs of school boards that the current government may consider to do with school board what they did with healthcare and develop regional LHINS.

Consultations will not help this.

[Bill MacPherson]

It will turn trustees into convenient cannon - fodder for the voters at election time.

[Annie Kidder]

Hi there,

Here's an update on the current progress of Bill 177.

The Bill passed second reading on October 7th and has been ordered referred to the Standing Committee on Social Policy. In standing committees politicians from all three parties examine the Bill and recommend amendments. There will be committee hearings where the public can make submissions, but the dates haven't been announced yet, though they could be as early as next week. I assume the Standing Committee will accept written submissions as well.

The Bill is called (hilariously) An Act to amend the Education Act with respect to student achievement, school board governance and certain other matters. It includes:

• A preamble that describes the purpose of education:
“A strong public education system is the foundation of a prosperous, caring and cohesive society. The purpose of education is to provide students with the opportunity to realize their potential and develop into highly skilled, knowledgeable, caring citizens who contribute to their society. All partners in the education sector have a role to play in enhancing student achievement and well-being, closing gaps in student achievement and maintaining confidence in the province’s publicly funded education system.”

• Rules about the duties and responsibilities of school board chairs, directors and trustees, including things like members of boards shall “bring concerns of parents, students and supporters of the board to the attention of the board” and members shall “refrain from interfering in the day to day management of the board by its officers and staff”; chairs of boards shall “act as spokesperson to the public on behalf of the board.”

• An outline of the requirements for trustee codes of conduct

• A requirement that all boards have multi-year plans (3 or more years) that explain how the board is:
o Promoting improved student outcomes
o Ensuring the board’s resources are spent appropriately
o Delivering effective educational programs to students
o Promoting the well-being of students
o Encouraging students to pursue their educational goals
o Allocating its resources

• Sections giving the Minister of Education power to make regulations:
o governing the “roles, responsibilities, powers and duties of boards, directors of education and board members including chairs of boards.”
o mandating school boards have Parent Involvement Committees and outlining their “composition, mandate and function”.
o outlining what should be in codes of conduct for school trustees codes

Bill 78, passed in 2006, gave the Minister the power to make other regulations governing school boards. These “provincial interest” regulations will allow the Minister to intervene in or even take over a school board based on students’ performance.

Regulations
It’s important (though boring) to understand the difference between a Bill and a regulation. A Bill is passed in the legislature with lots of discussion and, if we’re lucky, public debate. A Bill gives the government the power to enact Regulations. Regulations are enacted without any debate, and often with no consultation – and they can be changed by subsequent governments without going through any sort of democratic or open process.

SO – a lot of Bill 177 is benign and will even be helpful because it clarifies the roles of those who work in school boards. BUT – the upcoming regulations may be a bit more controversial. We may have regulations which require many things from school boards, but which don’t ensure boards have the resources necessary to do the things required of them. The regulations may give any Minister of Education, now or in the future, the right to take over a school board if the board’s students are not achieving at a high enough standard (and right now we have only EQAO scores as a measure of student achievement). Through regulations, boards may be required to produce highly detailed multi-year reports which include targeted outcomes, and they may be required to meet those targets or face sanctions from the province – but there is no reciprocal accountability measure for the provincial government.

Keep watching here, and we'll let you know when the hearings are and how make submissions.

[Norah Fountain]

Thanks Annie for pointing out the difference between the Bill and the Regulations -- the Bill sounds reasonable enough. Who doesn't want better accountability for student achievement? We all do. It is the Regs that are the real problem (and the Bill sets the framework for those regs to be acted upon). The regs are so vague and need to be better defined. In my area, we have schools that have such a small Grade 3 or 6 cohort (depending on the year) that results aren't even publicized. So how does one argue that a board is achieving (or isn't achieving) if results aren't transparent or consistently reported? And of course, I'm not saying that the EQAO results are in any way the right benchmark for achievement. I'm also very much in favour of long term planning. At the same time, you can set out five year goals but when you have to wait each year to find out what money the gov't will hand you -- and what restrictions/clawbacks they will apply each time, well, you can see the problem. We need to see the other part of the picture: Where is the Ministry of Ed's accountability - where is their long term financial plan? It's all so disturbing and simply unfair.

Annie Kidder said:

Hi there,

Here's an update on the current progress of Bill 177.

The Bill passed second reading on October 7th and has been ordered referred to the Standing Committee on Social Policy. In standing committees politicians from all three parties examine the Bill and recommend amendments. There will be committee hearings where the public can make submissions, but the dates haven't been announced yet, though they could be as early as next week. I assume the Standing Committee will accept written submissions as well.

The Bill is called (hilariously) An Act to amend the Education Act with respect to student achievement, school board governance and certain other matters. It includes:

• A preamble that describes the purpose of education:
“A strong public education system is the foundation of a prosperous, caring and cohesive society. The purpose of education is to provide students with the opportunity to realize their potential and develop into highly skilled, knowledgeable, caring citizens who contribute to their society. All partners in the education sector have a role to play in enhancing student achievement and well-being, closing gaps in student achievement and maintaining confidence in the province’s publicly funded education system.”

• Rules about the duties and responsibilities of school board chairs, directors and trustees, including things like members of boards shall “bring concerns of parents, students and supporters of the board to the attention of the board” and members shall “refrain from interfering in the day to day management of the board by its officers and staff”; chairs of boards shall “act as spokesperson to the public on behalf of the board.”

• An outline of the requirements for trustee codes of conduct

• A requirement that all boards have multi-year plans (3 or more years) that explain how the board is:
o Promoting improved student outcomes
o Ensuring the board’s resources are spent appropriately
o Delivering effective educational programs to students
o Promoting the well-being of students
o Encouraging students to pursue their educational goals
o Allocating its resources

• Sections giving the Minister of Education power to make regulations:
o governing the “roles, responsibilities, powers and duties of boards, directors of education and board members including chairs of boards.”
o mandating school boards have Parent Involvement Committees and outlining their “composition, mandate and function”.
o outlining what should be in codes of conduct for school trustees codes

Bill 78, passed in 2006, gave the Minister the power to make other regulations governing school boards. These “provincial interest” regulations will allow the Minister to intervene in or even take over a school board based on students’ performance.

Regulations
It’s important (though boring) to understand the difference between a Bill and a regulation. A Bill is passed in the legislature with lots of discussion and, if we’re lucky, public debate. A Bill gives the government the power to enact Regulations. Regulations are enacted without any debate, and often with no consultation – and they can be changed by subsequent governments without going through any sort of democratic or open process.

SO – a lot of Bill 177 is benign and will even be helpful because it clarifies the roles of those who work in school boards. BUT – the upcoming regulations may be a bit more controversial. We may have regulations which require many things from school boards, but which don’t ensure boards have the resources necessary to do the things required of them. The regulations may give any Minister of Education, now or in the future, the right to take over a school board if the board’s students are not achieving at a high enough standard (and right now we have only EQAO scores as a measure of student achievement). Through regulations, boards may be required to produce highly detailed multi-year reports which include targeted outcomes, and they may be required to meet those targets or face sanctions from the province – but there is no reciprocal accountability measure for the provincial government.

Keep watching here, and we'll let you know when the hearings are and how make submissions.