Yesterday the Thames Valley board was reporting through the media that they were losing over 1,000 in secondary alone.

Question - Are we losing school board and ministry bureaucrats at this same rate?

We seriously should be but instead we’re puffing up their salaries - paying more to educate fewer and fewer children.

Open to the idea, of renting excess space but not to doctors or dentists. Health facilities would have to have separate entrances, plus parking spaces just for the patients. And I really cannot see a dentist conducting classes on dental hygiene for students, when dentists are so busy as it is, especially in rural areas to have the time to do this.

That said, looking at the articles of places where schools are closing, I still maintained that school closures are decided well in advance, and parents, communities have a steep uphill battle to fight the closure. Too many close meetings, and using tactics such as secret ballot so the public cannot tell who voted for closure, and the plans that materialized like magic after the school closes. Throw in the increased centralization, big schools, and now the new process for school bus contracts in Ontario, is adding more fuel to the fire in rural Ontario.

“School bus operators across the province are crying foul about a new system of awarding contracts introduced by the McGuinty government.

Small, community-based bus companies that have been driving local kids to school for generations are being put out business by a process that allows big businesses and multinationals to low-ball them for contracts.”
http://www.torontosun.com/comment/columnists/christina_blizzard/2011/04/12/17970346.html

At the end of the article: “This is a big city solution to a big city problem — the eHealth boondoggle.

It has no place in small-towns.

Don’t punish small businesses in rural Ontario for big mistakes made in Toronto.”

Should add, one-sized fits all for policies designed to solve big city problems and in this case bus transportation in the education file.

Chuck, the stats does indicate that that staff has increased as enrollment has declined,  But the real kicker, a school slated for possible closure, there is decreased numbers in staff, as if the board is preparing ahead of time to set the conditions for the reasons to closed down the school.

It is the emptying of the rural communities throughout the province. Have we forgotten that these communities produce the food that feeds us? BIG city solutions which are not well-thought out, and look to short-sighted political gains do not appreciate what communities outside of the G.T.A. supply. Economies of scale, low-ball & predatory bidding for contracts, discrimination of local small business will mean the demise of our province. STOP the bleeding.