Doug Ford, School choice, Parents and Students Opt To Go To The Best Toronto Public Schools – TDSB doesn’t understand why! – November 9, 2019,
In China, recently the Chinese Communist Party made a law that prevents children from playing video games after 10 pm, this law was put into place according to the Chinese communist party to prevent Chinese children from going blind. If people remember the Chinese communist Party also created a 1 child policy for China which would make life economically complicated for a woman to give birth to more than 1 child. I say this to remind people about social engineering, a free market in endeavor trusts that the parent or parents will make the best decisions for their children. Even in instances of parents, not being educated themselves, they still in many instances find a way to create the best life possible for their children. So from my perspective, it’s no secret as to Why are some high schools empty while others are overcrowded?.
I went to school in Toronto, and if it was up to me I wouldn’t have attended the public schools I did attend. I went to the public schools I went to because I had little say in the matter. Maybe the reality was different even back then I realized, all I knew was that I was rejected at more schools than I was accepted. In my personal opinion, these schools had the right to reject me, however, what I didn’t like was that I had no other options, I had to settle for what was presented to me.
I’m not a fan of having fewer options, I’m a firm believer in abundance, a school that might work for 1 student won’t work for another, there really isn’t, nor should there be a 1 size fits all solution to education. When parents and students have options, they’ll typically pick the option that resonates with them. Word of mouth gets around and if the word on the street is that “School A” is better than “School B” if, given the option, parents and even students will pick “School A”.
Now, a person could argue that maybe “School A” is better than “School B”, because “School A” has more funding? Sorry that’s not true, teachers create the atmosphere of the school, bad teachers result in student and parent complaints and the end results of a public school education often leaves a negative taste in the mouths of future Toronto parents, who as adults are more aggressive with putting their children in the best schools they can find. It’s supply and demand, the problem with the Toronto District School Board is that they’re not in the business of meeting the demands of the people they educate.
I think teachers have the right to unionize, I just don’t think Public School teachers have the right to unionize.
I think there’s a conflict of interest between public school teachers and their students. The teachers want more money and social security, however, they’re unwilling to work out a compromise of school choice. If parents were openly allowed to pick and choose what schools their children went too and these parents didn’t feel fearful that saying the wrong thing to a public school teacher or saying the wrong thing to a public school board wouldn’t put their own abilities as a parent into question, then we’d have a much better school system.
The parents want the best for their children, a large number of Canadians trust the government, so they accept the government education monopoly and try to find the best schools within that monopoly. Throwing more resources or throwing more money at the TDSB won’t solve the problem, because in case you missed the point I’m trying to make the teachers union will give the existing teachers a pay raise in some capacity if more money is thrown at the public schools.
Most of the problems people see at Toronto public schools revolve around teachers’ salaries! Of course, these teachers will argue that they’re overworked and underpaid, but a large chunk of them make with benefits CA$70,000/yr, that’s for 10 months a year by the way. Now being that they’re PUBLIC School teachers, the cost of living goes up to pay their salaries, they make the claim that they’re doing something others are unwilling to do, but tenure exists in Toronto’s public education system, so it’s not like a better teacher can out-compete a current teacher out of his/her job.
When you take market forces out of the equation, you society gets a slew of unnecessary problems that simply don’t exist in Private Schools. It’s not to say Private Schools are perfect, but there’s a value there, that public school teachers simply will never enjoy.
None of us know it all, which is why in the private sector there’s a market, innovations in education already exist in abundance, I personally take advantage of this for my children, however, a lot of these teachers who aren’t stamped with the government stamp of approval are left to try and appeal to the parents who take a different approach to educating their children. Now, obviously there are success stories in the public school system, but there are systemic problems, that are unlikely to get addressed as long as these government school monopolies exist.
Why are some high schools empty while others are overcrowded? The TDSB is trying to find out | CBC
Interesting times ahead!