Test Results Used to Push Narrative that Strikes Undermine Public Health
On September 28, the day after the announcement of the results of the vote by members of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers' Federation (OSSTF) on the binding interest arbitration pathway, the provincial government issued a press release responding to the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO)'s "annual student assessment results." The results are scores on standardized math and literacy tests in K-12 education taken by students the previous year, in this case 2022-23. The government claims that reported gains in reading, writing and math scores are all due to its "unwavering focus on keeping kids in class with a back-to-basics education." Of course information of what the improvements were and their cause is not the goal of the government's press release, but rather to use it to push a self-serving narrative.
The
press release states: "These results demonstrate that Ontario's
plan to
provide a stable school year without interruption with a renewed
emphasis on getting back to basics and improving foundational
skills is
working," adding that "however, there is more work ahead to
ensure
continued positive outcomes for students." There is no
explanation of
what that work is.
Based on Education Minister Stephen Lecce's comments about the need for other education unions to follow the OSSTF's pathway of giving up the right to strike and opting for voluntary binding interest arbitration, "the work" being proposed is getting the other education unions to give up their right to strike, either voluntarily or by threatening to use force.
Later on the press release states that "As EQAO results show, the government continues to make the case that stable in-person learning, with a renewed focus on literacy and STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] education will lead to positive mental, developmental, physical health [emphasis added] and long-term academic success. Ontario is ensuring students are graduating with foundational skills for the jobs of tomorrow."
The language used is a significant red flag as it indicates the government is actually trying to make the case that strikes -- for which its preferred term is "disruptions" -- undermine the "mental, developmental and physical health" of students. The case it wants to make is that teachers and education workers should have their right to strike violated because their collective actions represent a danger to public health, in this case the "mental, developmental and physical health" of the youth.
Courts have ruled that the most significant criterion for a government declaring workers essential is that if they were to strike it would endanger public health. This position of the government comes at a time it is making egregious cuts to education that all those working in the schools know are violations of the right of the youth to an education and the supports they require to grow healthy in body and mind. The levels of need in the schools far outstrip what is funded and it is educators who are left to try and meet these needs without the resources to do so, which is unsustainable. The government's spin-doctoring of this serious issue is self-serving and shameless to say the least.
This
discourse must be challenged by everyone as it shows the
government's
real aim, which is to continue undermining public education by
eliminating the ability of those on the front lines of its
implementation to say No! up to and including
through strike
action. Those teachers and
education workers who voted in favour of OSSTF's proposal for
binding
interest arbitration did not do so because they believe having
the
right to strike harms the youth. Far from it! Many do not trust
the
government to uphold any standards either in contract
negotiations or
in education as a whole.
Many did not vote because they refuse to give up the right to
strike
but nonetheless hope that binding arbitration will permit a way
forward
in the face of the government's intransigence. This is the
argument
they were presented with by their union and the vote result
gives the
union the opportunity
to try out this method of sorting out the government's refusal
to
negotiate.
It is now critical that the government not be permitted to use the OSSTF vote to claim a mandate for any moves to limit the right to strike in education in the name of protecting the health of Ontario's youth.
This article was published in
Number 57
- October
4, 2023
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/WF2023/Articles/WO10572.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca