They’ll tell you it’s for the kids and that they are fighting for No Cuts To Education but what are Ontario’s teachers really asking for? How well are our teachers compensated, what are they demanding, and is anyone buying that this fight is about the students?
Chris
Dec 19, 2019
More than 10,000 Ontario Teachers made the Canadian Sunshine List; a list aimed at “illuminating government expenditures” by sharing the salary, benefits and/or severance information for employees who work in the public sector and earn $100,000 or more. At least that is what Jasmine Pickel, Interim Ontario Director, Canadian Taxpayers Federation, has tracked while investigating the most recent demands by Ontario teachers causing strike action in our secondary schools and other effects in elementary schools across the province.
Teachers in Ontario are among the best paid in the country. With that in mind, Ontario parents or even just taxpayers might be wondering, ‘If that is true, then what is this strike action about?’ In this week’s article following week number three of rolling one-day strikes across the province, I would like to explore how much teachers earn, and what they are asking for. We’ll discuss whether these strikes are in the children’s best interest and who is responsible for paying for the ever-increasing remuneration to our educators and educational administrators.
Stephen Lecce, Ontario Education Minister, points out that Ontario teachers are the second-highest paid in Canada, and one of the best-paid educators in the world. In the United States, the 2017 median salary of an American teacher was $57,160 USD (this converts to just shy of $75,000 CAD). The average high school teacher in Ontario earns $92,900 annually ($89,300 for Ontario elementary school teachers). This is far above the average Ontario taxpayer who earns $55,500.
In addition to a very comfortable salary, they also receive some of the best benefits in the country (100% coverage on prescriptions, one-week vacation at March Break, ten weeks vacation in the summer and another two weeks off at Christmas). The typical teacher can retire at age 59, having worked approximately 26 years, and collect a great pension for another 30 years. Not to mention that the duties of their work do not require heavy lifting, long days working while standing, or the need for safety equipment to do their job.
What is the perspective of the teachers, or the teacher unions? The argument is that in order to maintain parody with inflation, teachers are demanding a two-percent wage hike, in addition to increased parental leave, increased prep time and more. The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) President, Harvey Bischof, claims private sector wages have been rising at a higher rate which suggests his union is unfairly comparing teacher salaries to those in private-sector professional positions.
Doug Ford’s Conservative government is, in my opinion, being more than fair with the negotiations. Conservative governments are typically voted in, in order to lower taxes and examine redundant and frivolous spending on behalf of the taxpayer. When Conservatives examined that student enrollment in Ontario schools was down over the last ten years and spending is up, an obvious examination and action to cut overspending must be initiated. However, no teacher was at risk of being laid off and creative solutions to address the issues were brought to the table only to be entirely rejected by OSSTF:
The reality is teachers have it good and they know it! There are more students coming out of teacher’s college than there will ever be demand for, and the reason is that Ontario students know that landing a teaching job is striking gold. Present and future teachers do not want the introduction of online courses or an increase in class sizes (even a reasonable 25 students per teacher) because then the demand for teachers will again decrease and those hoping to get their own cash cow will be out of luck.
Online courses could produce an added skillset for students before they reach the workforce or post-secondary education. Learning by correspondence creates an atmosphere for self-discipline, organization, and the ability to learn at one’s own pace. Class sizes of 25 students does not create a crowded learning environment and is reasonable when examining both students’ needs and the taxpayers' pocketbooks.
Stephen Lecce asserts, “I think what is unfair is when an entity or the union is saying, ‘No, we should reallocate hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation,’ instead of allocating it to the frontline of the class. That is unfair and I think that’s incongruent with the priority of parents in the province of Ontario.”
When all is said and done, what the teachers’ unions are asking for equates to about $7,000,000,000. You may have heard a lot of different numbers depending on who presents the data but this number reflects all demands being made including a “ME TOO” clause which states that if one education union negotiates a higher raise than another union, they all receive that higher raise.
Think this sounds like teachers’ unions are demanding more than is fair and just? Unfortunately for Ontario students, they will pay the price of continued conflict over these demands by the action of these one-day strikes where teachers will protest with signs that read: NO CUTS TO EDUCATION. Tricky teachers are propagating to those not paying close enough attention that this is about “stuff being taken away” as opposed to “stuff they want that YOU have to pay for”.
My daughter’s grade ten math teacher wears buttons and shirts in the classroom that promote the OSSTF narrative but refuses to discuss the strike action at all with her students for fear of kids running home to tell their parents what she has said. This particular teacher has lost the respect of her students because at fifteen years old, they know enough to know that this is hypocritical behaviour and the only one affecting their education are the button-wearing teachers (and their unions).
In addition to OSSTF strikes, the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (EFTO) says they will halt the planning of field trips, performance appraisals, and other duties of their job. Are you able to cease performing duties of your job without reprimand or termination? Unions are simply providing an environment where workers can hold taxpayers hostage in order to get what they have not rightfully earned. We see this also in places like the LCBO where work performance is poor, customer service to the public is lacking, and business sense is lost because unions provide security without the expectation of a job well done.
Why are these demands by teacher unions so immoral? The typical Ontario taxpayer footing the bill (for what we have already discussed is a rewarding and well-compensated job) makes approximately $36,000 less than the average Ontario teacher. Taxpayers contribute 94% of the cost of benefits for high school teachers (100% of the cost of benefits for elementary school teachers); a luxury most private-sector employees must contribute a portion of their paycheque to. A good chunk of teacher pensions is also on the taxpayer as it is not all deducted from teacher paycheques. Essentially, teachers are asking Ontarians less fortunate than them to pay more for their “comfort”.
How do we solve this unfair hostage situation from reoccurring every couple of years? First of all, we need to blow up the unions (metaphorically, of course). At some point, a governing or judicial body needs to intervene and hold the unions accountable. Unions were originally purposed at protecting the working rights of teachers but who looks out for the taxpayer being asked to pay more than they themselves have access to?
Would you agree we need to give teachers a choice of whether they want to follow the instruction of their union? Then lockout those "button-wearing" teachers, terminate the ones who refuse to perform the duties of their job unless they get more money (pretty sure that’s called “blackmail” anyway…), and replace them with real educators, happy to perform this rewarding job at a salary that coincides with the accountability of the role and what Ontario can afford. Perhaps the extraordinary teachers we currently have will remain, and the greedy ones looking for their golden ticket can go find a private-sector job that is worth that nearly six-figure paycheque not on the backs of you, the Ontario taxpayer.
Jasmine Pickel, Interim Ontario Director, Canadian Taxpayers Federation
@JasminePickel
Toronto Sun, Teachers Rich Demands Laid Bare
Toronto Sun, Teachers Pay and Benefits At The Top of Thee Heap Don't Let Them Fool You
Toronto Sun, Elementary Teachers Move Closer To Strike
Kitchener Today, Elementary Teachers To Ramp Up Work To Rule Stop Planning New Field Trips
Comments