Election: Catholic teachers endorse Orazietti

NEWS RELEASE

HURON-SUPERIOR CATHOLIC TEACHERS ASSOCIATION

************************ Huron Superior Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association officially endorses David Orazietti

Sault Ste. Marie – In a move echoing Premier McGuinty and David Orazietti’s call to continue strengthening publicly funded education for Ontario’s 2 million students, including the over 4,000 students attending publicly funded Catholic schools in the Sault, the Huron Superior Ontario English Catholic Teachers Association in Sault Ste. Marie officially endorsed local Liberal candidate David Orazietti today.

“The McGuinty government’s plan for education shows a commitment to build on the successes made by students and teachers over the past four years as a result of investments of over $78 million in publicly funded schools in the Sault,” said Marcie Tombari, vice-president and political action chairperson.

“We don’t want to go back to the days of overcrowded classrooms, teachers’ strikes, strife and textbook shortages,” says Ivana Coccimiglio, president.

The Liberal government’s funding works out to $2,000 more per student or $714,000 per school on average.

In their first term they added 4,800 new teachers to reduce class sizes at the primary level, 1,900 new elementary specialist teachers for art, music, phys-ed, English, science and math, and increased salary benchmarks.

The PCs cut $689 million out of education in their first three budgets causing public school funding to go down $1250 per student.

Their current platform plans to take $500 million out of publicly funded education and put it into private schools.

This is money that would be taken away from currently publicly funded schools within the Huron-Superior Catholic District School Board (HSCDSB).

When the McGuinty Liberals introduced legislation (Bill 2) to cancel the last Conservative private school tax giveaway, the NDP voted against canceling the private school tax credit.

The private school tax took funding away from the HSCDSB and that should concern local school board employees.

McGuinty has reiterated his support for public Catholic schools and insisted Ontario would not follow Quebec and Newfoundland.

“We could change the Constitution. We could hold a referendum. I think it’s a bad idea. That’s not keeping with my responsibilities as I see it as premier of Ontario,” said McGuinty.

"There’s a constitutional reason and an historical one for my position,” McGuinty said.

The NDP claim to be on the side of teachers and public education, but their record both past and present tell a different story.

They implemented a three year Social Contract with Rae Days, that included a salary freeze and job cuts for teachers – a five percent reduction in teaching staff over a three-year period.

The NDP passed back to work legislation three times when in government and eliminated the traditional Ontario Scholar bursary to save $2 million.

Recently, they voted against providing historic investments in education – an additional $1.2 billion over the next four years, increasing per student funding by more than $1,000 by 2007-08 (2004 budget), as well as voted against students learning to 18 (Bill 52).

Orazietti and the McGuinty Liberals have demonstrated that they stand on the side of two million kids receiving a publicly funded education.

Their Professional Learning Scholarship Fund is evidence that the McGuinty Liberals will continue to respect the professionalism of teachers.

Their plan is to continue working hard for the over 4,000 kids in our Huron Superior Catholic District Schools and the constitutional agreement that allows for them.

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